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IX S^. 5 2D Congress, > SENATE. f Mis. Doc. 

ist Session. / | No. 229. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 

OF 

EPHRAIM KING WILSON 

(A SENATOR FROM MARYLAND), 



delivp:rei) ix the 



SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



May 6 and July 2, 1892. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF CONGRESS. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1893. 






Beftolrcd hy ihe House of Bepreseniaiives (the Senate concurrhif/), That 
there be printed of the eulogies delivered in Congress upon the Hon. 
Ei'HRAiM King Wilson, late a Senator from the State of Maryland, 8,000 
copies, which shall include 30 copies to be bound in full Morocco, to be 
delivered to the family of the deceased, and of those remaining, 2,600 
copies shall be for the use of the Senate, and 5,350 for the use of the House 
of Representatives; and the Secretary of the Treasury is directed to have 
engraved and printed a portrait of the said Ephraim King Wilson to 
accompany said eulogies. 



CONTENTS 



Pag« 

Peath and funeral services 5 

Aunouncemeut in the Senate g 

Announcement in the House of Representatives n 

Proceedings in the Senate : 

Address of Mr. Gorman, of Maryland 18 

Mr. Wilson, of Iowa 21 

Mr. Berry, of Arkansas 26 

Mr. Piatt, of Connecticut 29 

Mr. Gray, of Delaware 33 

Mr. Mitchell, of Oregon 36 

Mr. Pasco, of Florida 41 

Mr. Dixon, of Rhode Island 45 

Mr. Gibson, of Maryland 50 

Proceedings in the House of Representatives : 

Addre^ of Mr. Page, of Maryland 60 

Mr. Herbert, of Alabama 7I 

Mr. McKaig, of Maryland 73 

Mr. Joseph D. Taylor, of Ohio 76 

Mr. Tracey, of New York 80 

Mr. Rusk, of Maryland 83 

Mr. Cummings, of New York 85 

Mr. Rayner, of Maryland S6 



DEATH AND FUNERAL OF SENATOR WILSON. 



Hon. Ephraim King Wilson, United States Senator from 
tlie State of Maryland, died at his apartments in the Hamilton 
Honse, Washington, at five minutes past 10 o'clock p. m., 
Tuesday, February 24, 1891, of organic disease of the heart. 

The life so suddenly ended had been one of usefulness and 
distinction, Th^ outlines of his career, sketched with char- 
acteristic modesty by himself, are as follows : 

Ephraim King Wilson, of Snow Hill, was born at Snow Hill, Mary- 
land, December 22, 1821, was educated at Union Academy, Snow Hill, and 
at Washington Academy, Princess Anne, Maryland, and graduated at Jef- 
ferson College, Pennsylvania in 1841 ; studied law and practiced in that 
profession for twenty years ; was a member of the Maryland house of 
delegates in 1847 ; was an elector for Pierce and King in 1852 ; was a Rep- 
resentative in the Forty-second -Congress; was judge of the first judicial 
circuit of Maryland from 1878 to 1884 ; was elected to the United States 
Senate as a Democrat to succeed James B. Groome, Democrat, and took his 
seat March 4, 1885. His term of service will expire March 3, 1891. 

Mr. Wilson had been reelected for the term beginning 
March 4, 1891. 

The death of Mr. Wilson was announced the following morn- 
ing in the Senate by Mr. Gorman, and in the House of Eepre- 
sentatives by Mr. Gibson. After the appointment of com- 
mittees to take charge of the funeral ceremonies, and to escort 
the remains to their last resting place, both Houses, as a mark 
of respect to the memory of the deceased, adjourned. 

The committee on the part of the Senate was composed of 
the following Senators: Mr. Gorman, of Maryland; Mr. Gray, of 



6 Death and funeral of Senator Wilson. 

Delaware; Mr. Jones, of Arkansas; Mr. Faulkner,of West Vir- 
ginia; Mr. Pasco, of Florida; Mr. Spooner, of Wisconsin; Mr. 
Mitchell, of Oregon; Mr. Wilson, of Iowa; and Mr. Dixon, of 
Rhode Island; and on the part of the Honse of Representa- 
tives, of the following Representatives: Mr. Gibson, Mr. Rusk, 
Mr.' McComas, Mr. Stnmp, Mr. Stockbridge, and Mr. Mndd, 
of Maryland; Mr. Stone, of Missouri ; Mr. Browne, of Virginia; 
and Mr. Abbott, of Texas. 

Brief but impressive funeral services w^ere held Monday 
morning at the Hamilton House, and were attended by the 
President, the Vice-President, members of the Senate and 
House of Representatives, and friends of the deceased states- 
man. The remains of Mr. Wilson were then placed on a 
special train which left Washington about noon of the same day, 
and they were accompanied by the family of the deceased and 
the committee of the Senate and House of Representatives. 
At Baltimore Governor Jackson joined the party and went 
with them to Snow Hill, as did also Messrs. J. Harry Preston, 
William C. Harden, and Edward McMaster, a committee of 
the house of delegates of Maryland, who had been appointed 
by Speaker Hubner to cooperate with the committee of the 
senate of Maryland, consisting of Senators Smith, of Worces- 
ter, Peter, of Howard, and Randall, of Anne Arundel, which 
had been appointed by President Brattan. 

When Snow Hill, the home of the dead Senator, was 
rea(;hed, a large number of his neighbors and friends were 
waiting at the station to attest by their presence their sorrow 
at the death of Mr. Wilson, and their regret for the loss 
which the State has suffered by his decease. 

Tiie funeral took place at Snow Hill, Friday, February 27. 
No ceremonies were hehl at the house of the deceased, whither 
his remains had been borne, but at 11 o'clock the funeral cor- 
tege ])roceeded to Makemie Memorial Presbyterian Church. 



Death and funeral of Senator Wilson. 7 

The esteem in which the dead statesman was held was shown 
by the hxrge conconrse which followed his remains to their last 
resting place. The public buildings in the town were closed, 
and during the funeral the church bells were tolled, and busi- 
ness generally was susi^ended. The funeral services were con- 
ducted by the Eev. D. B. Fitzgerald. The pallbearers ^ere 
selected from Senator Wilson's intimate friends in Snow Hill, 
and were: J. T. Matthews, P. D. Cottingham, Col. John Wal- 
ter Smith, George W. Purnell, Capt. William E. Timmons, 
and George S. Richardson. 

, The services at the church were simple but impressive. 
While the casket was being borne in^ preceded by the Con- 
gressional committee, acting as an honorary escort, a quar- 
tette of voices rendered beautifully the touching words of a 
funeral hymn. Rev. William B. Walton, of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, read a scriptural lesson, which was followed 
by prayer and a sermon by the pastor of the church, Rev. D. 
B. Fitzgerald. The sermon was a forcible and eloquent 
tribute to the character of Mr. Wilson. 

At the conclusi6n of the services the body was borne 
through the church to the cemetery adjoining, and laid at rest 
by the side of his kindred. 



ANNOUNCEMENT IN THE SENATE OF THE DEATH OF 
SENATOR WILSON. 



Wednesday, February 25, 1891. 
The Senate met at 11 o'clock a. m. " 

Eev. J. G. Butler, D. D., the Chaplaiu of the Senate, offered 
the following prayer : 

Thoii God of all consolation, grant strength and comfort and 
blessing to Thine handmaiden, and to this family passing 
through the deep waters of affliction. We thank Thee for this 
life, so pure, so true, so noble, so useful, so long preserved, 
fashioned and molded in the faith of Christ. 

O, Thou who livest and wast dead, and who art alive for- 
evermore, we rejoice in the hope of the life to come; and we 
l)ray that as we walk through these shadows we may have 
good consciences toward God and toward our neighbor, so 
guarding ourselves, so walking in the obedience and faith of 
the gospel, living soberly, righteously, and godly, that when 
life's labor is ended and life's conflict is done, we may be gath- 
ered to the rest that remaineth for Thy people on high. 

Sanctify, we pray Thee, this providence; and as we abide 
under the dark shadow, coming to us time ;ind again, time and 
again, so quickly, () gnint tlmt Thy spiiit may speak to our 
conscieiu;es, that we may be (piickened in our life toward God 
and toward the future, toward tbc life that abideth. Kestrain 
us, and strengthen us, and help us, and bless us, so that living 
8 



Announcement of death of Senator Wilson. 9 

to God here, serving our fellowmeii, adorning the doctrine of 
God our Saviour in all things, we may be fitted for the home 
in the heavenly land where they die no more. 

Guide these Thy servants this day. Give unto us Thy peace. 
Are we not Thy children, though compassed about with infirm- 
ities? We pray for strength from God. Conscious of our 
sins, we ask pardon. We look to Thee for wisdom to guide; 
and O that God may clothe us with might by His spirit in the 
inner man, so that living a true and pure and manly and Chris- 
tian life we may serve our generation and falling asleep be 
gathered to the fathers. 

We ask these mercies with guidance, and help, and blessing, 
and peace, in the name of Chris t our Savior. Amen. 

The Journal of yesterday's proceedings was read and ap- 
proved. 

Mr. Edmunds. I ask unanimous consent that the business 
of the Senate be suspended for a few moments until the Sena- 
tor from Maryland [Mr. Gorman] can be consulted as to what, 
under the circumstances, may be done out of respect for the 
memory of our late colleague. 

The Vice-President. That course will be pursued if there 
be no objection. [After a pause.] 

Mr. Gorman. Mr. President, it becomes my most painful 
duty to announce to the Senate the death of my honored col- 
league, Hon. Ephraim Kma Wilson, who breathed his last 
in this city, at his quarters in the Hamilton House, at five 
minutes past 10 last night. My late colleague, although not 
in robust health, was in this Chamber on Saturday last, giving 
that earnest attention to public business which was the rule 
of his life. On Sunday last he was indisposed, but none 
around him supposed it was more than a temporary trouble. 



10 Announcement of death of Senator Wilson. 

soon to pass away. His death, therefore, comes as a sudden 
shock, not only to his associates and the country, but to his 
family. 

My lamented friend, however, had for some years anticipated 
a sudden taking off. He was conscious that he had an affec- 
tion of the heart which might terminate his career at any 
moment, and yet, with the courage of a hero, he went on in 
the discharge of his private and public duties as serenely, as 
quietly, and as methodically as if he were in robust health. 

He had nearly reached'the allotted time of three-score years 
and ten. He was beloved and honored by the people of his 
Stare; he had served them in the State legislature, as a 
Presidential elector, as a member of the House of Representa- 
tives, and as an associate justice of the circuit court, and has 
been twice elected as a member of this body. His career here 
is familiar to all. We knew him as a man of very high intelli- 
gence, a lawyer of acumen and rare logical power, and a 
gentleman without reproach. He enjoyed the esteem of every 
member of this body without regard to party. The loss of 
such a man is a loss to the nation. But in Maryland his death 
will be specially mourned. The people of that State have lost 
an upright citizen, an exalted patriot, a true friend, and faith- 
ful neighbor. He died as he had lived, a modest, painstaking, 
Christian man. 

Mr. President, at tlu' ])roper time, I shall ask the Senate to 
fix a day on which itrojicr tribute may be paid to his memory. 

1 oflcr the resolutions which I send to the desk. 

The Vice-President. The resolutions will be read. 
The Chief Clerk read the resolutions, as follows : 

nesolrrd, That tho Senate has heard with f^rcat aonow of the deatli of 
the llou. l'4)liiaim K. WilHon, late a Senator Jrom the State of Maryland. 

liexolrcd, Tliat a committee of nine Senators be ai)i»oiiited hy the iircsid- 
infi officer to take order for superiuteudiug the fimeral of Mr. Wilsou. 



Annoiincement of death of Senator Wilson, 11 

Beaolved, That as a further mark of respect entertained by the Senate 
for his memory, his remains be removed from Washington to Maryhxnd in 
charge of the Sergeant-at-Arms, and attended by the committee, who shall 
have full power to carry this resolution into effect. 

Eesolved, That the Secretary communicate these proceedings to the House 
of Representatives and invite the House of Eepresentatives to attend the 
funeral to-morrow, Thursday, and to appoint a committee to act with the 
committee of the Senate. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect the Senate do now adjourn. 

Mr. Spooner. Mr. President, when, at another session of 
Congress, *the Senate shall, in obedience to its custom, pause 
in the transaction of the public business to j^ay tribute to 
the memory of our dead colleague and friend, I shall not be a 
member of this body, and so can not then claim the right and 
privilege of mingling with your tributes of respect and affec- 
tion my own. I therefore must beg the indulgence of the Sen- 
ate on this occasion to pay, albeit only in the faltering and 
unstudied words of sorrow, a brief personal tribute to the 
memory of Senator Wilson, of Maryland. He and I entered 
the Senate upon the same day. He became a member of the 
Committee on Claims and took his seat with that committee 
on the same day and at the same hour with me. I have had 
for years the honor to be its chairman, and he has remained 
continuously one of its members, and my association with him 
has, by virtue of that relationship, been, almost from the 
beginning, intimate, both personally and officially. I was long 
ago admitted to his confidence, and highly honored as I felt 
myself to be by his personal friendship, his death brings to 
me a keen sense of personal loss. 

It is not to be expected that justice can be done to his char- 
acter and attainments in the informal speech of this hour. He 
was peculiarly modest and unobtrusive, yet possessed in full 
degree of that spirit and independence essential to true manli- 
ness. He had convictions, and the courage to avow and be 
guided by them. He has not taken very active part in the cur- 



12 Announcement of death of Senator Wilson. 

rent proceedings of this body. This was attributable in part 
to the characteristic which I have mentioned, and in part to 
the fact that for years the specter of death has been ever with 
him, the unbidden guest at every feast and the companion of 
every waking hour. But he was able, Mr. President, when 
duty bade him and when health permitted him, to cope success- 
fully in debate, here or elsewhere, with any antagoilist and 
upon any subject. His naturally strong mind had been disci- 
plined and developed by years of study and reiie^tion, until 
his mental powers were really great. He was capable of easy 
and accurate generalization and of ready and acute analysis. 
He was a man of great learning in the law, and his tempera- 
ment was essentially judicial. I never knew or was associated 
with one from whom injustice and harshness of judgment were 
less to be expected than from him. 

He made several reports to the Committee on Claims upon 
complicated subjects, which for comprehensiveness of treat- 
ment, for legal ability, and for literary beauty commanded the 
instantaneous and unanimous admiration and approbation of 
the members of that committee, and his judgment as embodied 
in a report did not in any instance fail to become the judg- 
ment of the Senate. 

He has made during his term elaborate speeches u])on impor- 
tant subjects, and they will afford permanent evidence of his 
great ability as a constitutional lawyer and of his thorough 
knowledge of constitutional history. 

Mr. President, anotliei' thing will be well remembered of him. 
He was a gentleman of the old school, and his courtesy to all 
with whom he came in contact, of high or of low degree, Wiis 
never failing, and was always beautiful. His asi)irations were 
all lofty, and in his i)ul)li(' und luivatc life he was a Christinn 
gentleman. His death is a loss to the Senate, to his State, 
. and to the country. It can not be said that he died untimely, 



Announcement of death of Senator Wilso7i. 13 

" for death can not come to him untimely who is fit to die," 
and our friend from Maryhmd was iit to die. 

The Vice-President. The question is on agreeing to tlie 
resolutions. 

The resolutions were agreed to unanimously. 

The Vice-President appointed under the second resolu- 
tion, as the committee on the part of the Senate to attend the 
funeral, Mr. Gorman, Mr. Gray, Mr. Jones of Arkansas, Mr. 
Pasco, Mr. Faulkner, Mr. Spooner, Mr. Wilson of Iowa, Mr. 
Mitchell, and Mr. Dixon. 

The Senate accordingly (at 11 o'clock and 27 minutes a. m.) 
adjourned until to-morrow, Thursday, February 20, 1891, at 11 
o'clock a. m. 



ANNOUNCEMENT IN THE HOUSE OE REPRESENTATIVES 
OF THE DEATH OF SENATOR WILSON. 



February 25, 1891. 

Mr. Gibson. ]Mr. Speaker, it becomes my melanclioly duty 
to announce to this House the death of Ephraim K. Wilson, 
late a Senator of the. United States from Maryland, who died 
last night in this city at ten minutes past 10 o'clock. As con- 
spicuous-, Mr. Speaker, as has been the Fifty-first Congress in 
the death of its members, it has suffered no more serious loss 
than in the death of Ephraim K. Wilson, a Senator from Mary- 
land. 1 knew Senator Wilson well. I enjoyed his confidence 
and regard through many years. I knew him in all the rela- 
tions of life — social, professional, and political. 

In all of these he more than measured up to all of the require- 
ments of the positions in which those relations placed him. 
Kindly and courteous to all, dignified yet unostentetious, too 
gentle in his intercourse to be other than gentlemanly, with a 
regard for tlie feelings of others as sensitive as instinct, he 
moved in and out among his fellows as absolutely the imi)er- 
sonation of the gentleman of the old school as it has ever been 
my good fortune to observe. As a lawyer he ranked high. 
He was careful and ijainstaking in his investigation of every 
subject which was presented fot" his consideration; he was al- 
ways a safe counselor and fearless and eloquent as an advo- 
cate. " He desj)ised the artful trickery of ignoble minds," which 
has been assigned as an attribute of his profession, but ever 
recognized and taught in his faith and in his practice that there 
14 



AnnQiincemcnt of death of Senator Wilson. 15 

was au " atmosphere nearer the sun in which the great jurists 
of twenty generations had lived and dw^elt, an atmosphere 
adorned by a Webster and a Currau, an Erskine and a Grimke," 
and a host of others standing no less high in the appreciation 
of the profession. 

As a statesman his views were always elevated and broad- 
gauged. The ends he aimed at were his G-od's and his country's. 
He died surrounded by all of the gentle ministries that make 
life worth the living. Few men in public life have passed from 
earth away, full of years as well as of honors, as he who has 
left behind him the record of a life in which there was so little 
to condemn, to conceal, or to excuse, and so much to commend 
and to take x>attern by. I feel, Mr. Speaker, that the occasion 
is not x>roper nor is the opportunity meet for me to indulge in 
any lengthy eulogy upon the life and the character of my dis- 
tinguished friend and whilom colleague. Suffice it to say in 
this connection that I feel that the language of common eulogy 
would only too poorly express my estimate of his virtues. I 
send to the Clerk's desk, Mr. Speaker, resolutions which I ask 
to have read and submitted to the House : 

The Speaker. Before presenting the resolutions offered by 
the gentleman from Maryland, the Chair will cause to be read 
to the House the resolutions of the Senate. 

The Senate proceedings were read, as follows : 

In the Senate of the United States, 

February S5, 1891. 

liesolved. That the Senate has heard with great sorrow of the death of 
the Hon. Ephraim K. Wilson, late a Senator from the State of Maryland. 

Resolved, That a committee of nine Senators be appointed by the Pre- 
siding Officer to take order for superintending the funeral of Mr. Wilson. 

liesolved, That as a further mark of respect entertained by the Senate 
for his memory, his remains be removed from Washington to Maryland in 
charge of the Sergeant-at-Arms and attended by the committee, who shall 
have full power to carry this resolution into effect. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these proceedings to the 
House of Representatives, and invite the House of Representatives to at- 



16 Announcement of death of Senator Wilson. 

tend the funeral to-morrow (Thursday), and to appoint a committee to 
act with the committee of the Senate. 
Besolved, That as a further mark of respect the Senate do now adjourn. 

In compliance with the foregoing, the Presiding Officer appointed as said 
committee : 

Mr. Gorman, Mr. Gray, Mr. Jones of Arkansas, Mr. Pasco, Mr. Faulkner, 
Mr. Spoouer, Mr. "Wilson of Iowa, Mr. Mitchell, and Mr. Dixon. 

The Speaker. The clerk will now read the resolutions 
offered by the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Gibson]. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Resolved, That the House has received with profound sorrow the intelli- 
gence of the death of Senator Ephraim K. Wilson, of Maryland. 

Resolved, That the Speaker of the House appoint a committee of nine 
members, to act in conjunction with the committee of the Senate, to make 
the necessary arrangements and accompany the remains to the place of 
burial. 

Mr. McCoMAS. Mr. Speaker, the House has but a few days 
of this session remaining-, and they will be busy ones, but 1 
hope that during that time an appropriate occasion may be 
found, on behalf of the State so greatly honored by Senator 
WAsoN, for members of this House to do honor to his distin- 
guished public services and his blameless life. 

The resolutions were agreed to. 

The Speaker appointed as a committee on the part of the 
House, Mr. Gibson, Mr. McComas, Mr. Kusk, Mr. Stockbridge, 
Mr. Stump, Mr. Mudd, Mr. Stone of Missouri, Mr. Browne of 
Virginia, and Mr. Abbott. 

The Speaker. The (Jlerk will read the last resolution 
offered by the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Gibson]. 

The resolution was read, as follows: 

JicHolred, That as a further mark of n'Sjicct the House do iu)\v adjourn. 

The resolution was agreed to; and tlie H(mse acc<miingly 
(at ."» o'clock and ."» niinut«'s |». ni.) iidjfmnicd nntil S p. m. 



EULOGIES IN THE SENATE. 



May G, 1802. 

The Presiding Officer. The Lour of 2 o'clock having 
arrived, the Senate will proceed to consider the special order, 
unanimously agreed to be taken up at this hour, on which the 
Chair recognizes the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Gorman). 

Mr. Gorman. Mr. President, I oft'er the resolutions which 
I send to the desk. 

The Presiding Officer. The resolutions will be read. 

The clerk read as follows : 

Itcsolred, Tliat the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of the death 
of Ephraini K. Wilson, late a Senator from the State of Maryland. 

Resolved, That as a remark of respect to the memory of the deceased, the 
business of the Senate be now suspended to enable his associates to pay 
proper tribute of regard to his high character and distinguished public- 
services. 

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate commuuicate these resolutions 
to the House of Representatives. 

The Presiding Officer. The question is on the adoption 
of the resolutions offered by the Senator from Maryland. 

The resolutions were unanimously agreed to. 

S. Mis. 229 2 17 



18 Address of Mr. Gorman^ of Maryland^ on the 



Address of Mr, Gorman, of Maryland. 

Mr. President: Anotlier of those solemn occasions wliicli 
have so often of hite painfully checked the proceedings of the 
Senate and turned our thoughts from the affairs of public life 
and the strifes of ambition to the serious future, brings us to-day 
in the presence of the grave, and makes it our duty to offer trib- 
utes of respect to the memory of a former associate, who for 
nearly six years enjoyed the unbroken confidence and esteem 
of this body. 

My late colleague and friend, Ephraim King Wilson, was 
born at Snow Hill, Md., December 22, 1821, and died in this 
city February 24, 1891. He had thus almost completed the 
period allotted by the Psalmist as the limit of human life, when 
called to the dread account. 

Like most public men who have attained national distinction, 
he had to struggle against adverse fortune, and to depend 
mainly on self-exertion for support and advancement. His 
father, an eminent lawyer, died when this son was a child, be- 
queathing to him a good name as his only inheritance. He 
attended school at liis birthplace until the age of 15, and then 
moved to Philadelphia in the hope of pursuing his studies there 
and of permanently improving his condition. 

Without means to' attain the first object, he sought employ- 
ment in a store and remained in that service for a year. The 
friendly aid of relatives induced him to return home, where he 
resumed the plan of education originally formed, at the local 
academies. In 1841,.A\hen 20 years old, lie graduated with ex- 
cellent repute at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania. 

lie taught «(;hoolfor six years in the academies where he had 
been a prominent pupil, and where his sterling qualities were 



Life and character of Ephraini King Wilson. 19 

greatly valued by the faculties of those institutions. During 
this time of struggling self-support he studied law and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 184:8. But in the previous year, the peo- 
ple, who knew the worth of his character and the measure of 
his intellectual reach, elected him to represent them in the 
house of delegates as a starting step to his predicted emi- 
nence. 

For twenty years he practiced law with success in a locality 
where the professional business was not large, and its rewards 
were limited as compared with those of the great cities. He 
served as an elector in 1852 on the Pierce and King ticket, 
when the Democrats achieved a notable victory over the Whigs 
of that day. 

In 1869 he was chosen school examiner aad treasurer of 
Worcester County, and in 1872 he was elected to the House of 
Kepresentatives in the Forty-second Congress. Subsequently 
he became judge of the first judicial district of Maryland, and 
for six years he won golden opinions for the manner and abil- 
ity with which that high trust was administered. 

On retiring from the bench he was elected to the Senate in 
1884, and was reelected in 1890, but died a week before his 
second term would have begun. 

In these different positions, held from early manhood to the 
close of a long and honorable career, he always attracted the 
fullest trust of the people whom he served. Those who knew 
him best loved him most for the virtues which, early in life, had 
enlisted their sympathy and won their affection. 

He made no claim to be a brilliant orator nor a showy states- 
man. On the contrary, he shrank from public parade of any 
kind; was of a retiring nature, and belonged to that valuable 
order of public men who, in Parliament and in Congress, do so 
much to shape legislation by wise counsel and temperate action. 
He was therefore strong in the committee room, where measures 



20 Address of Mr. Gorman, of Maiyland, on the 

are primarily cousidered, and where his iiivestigatious, judg- 
ment, and advice were always treated with deserved deference. 
His speeches before the Senate were arguments, clear, strong, 
and convincing, and never failed to give high evidence both of 
the manly sincerity of his convictions and the ex ellence of his 
intellectual ability. 

Duty was the guide of his life, as conscience was his mentor. 
His convictions were strong because they rested on principles 
that rarely relaxed, and, if at all, only on changed conditions 
justifying the exception. Xo Senator was more profoundly im- 
pressed than he with the perils involved in the "force bill," nor 
was any more grateful for the patriotic and generous support 
from the other side which averted that threatened evil. He 
would have made any personal sacrifice to recognize their aid 
on that occasion. 

His speech on that bill, treating the subject in its constitu- 
tional, legal, and political aspects, was a masterly exposition of 
every point, and placed him in the front of a debate which will 
pass into history as among the most memorable and important 
that ever engaged the best minds of the Senate. 

His moral courage was of the highest purity and strength. An 
incurable malady had long warned him that the sword of the 
destroyer hung suspended by a hair over his head, and might 
fall at any unexpected moment. With the firm faith of a true 
Christian he accepted the doom without a murmur, trusting to 
the mercy of God, and pursued his paths in i)rivate andpuldic 
life calmly, as if no warning had been given. 

My personal acquaintance with "S\\. Wilson began twenty 
years ago, when he became a member of the Forty-second Con- 
gress. Residing in different parts of the State, our intercourse 
was limited until he entered the Senate in issr». From that 
time forward, until he was summoned at tlu' bar of Divine 
Justice, oui' lelations were intimate and cordial, marked by a 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 21 

perfect reciprocal confidence, and withont a jar to disturb an 
earnest friendship, which will always be preserved among my 
most cherished recollections. 

An exemplary life of stern integrity, of sterling honor, and 
of sincere devotion to the cause of justice, under all condi- 
tions, furnish the noblest epitaph to embalm his memory. 

When, in the order of Providence, our time comes to close 
these earthly scenes and to prepare for the everlasting future, 
as we all should strive to do, let us indulge the cheering hope 
of being welcomed, as he deserved to be, with '' Well done, 
good and faithful servant." 



Address of Mr. Wilson, of Iowa. 

Mr. President : My personal acquaintance with Ephraim 
King- Wilson is limited to the few years of his membershij) 
of this body. During that comparatively brief period I came 
to know him well. Our association was of such character as 
gave me definite knowledge of the man, and I found him one — 

Who many a noble gift from Heaven possessed. 

He was a good man. Can I say more of and for him than 
these few words express? They embrace all of duty, of con- 
science, of effort, of mindfulness of others, which evolve that 
character of human life which stamps with its approval of those 
lines of Longfellow wherein he says : 

There is no death! what seems so is transition; 

This life of mortal breath 
Is but a suburb of the life elysian, 

Whose portal we call death. 

As we now look upon the portal through which our honored 
and respected associate has gone from us, and recall the char- 



22 Address of Mr. Wilson, of lowa^ on the 

acteristics of the life which he passed iu the field of mortal 
activities, we will not doubt that he now participates in joys 
which abound in the "life elysian." 

He served his State and the nation in various public posi- 
tions. At the early age of 26 years he was elected a member of 
the Maryland house of delegates. This fact bears testimony 
of the high esteem in which the community of which he was a 
member held him. Nor did his official conduct detract from 
character and volume of that esteem. He served his State 
in both the legislative and judicial departments of its govern- 
ment. He also served the State aiid the nation in both branches 
of Congress. And the members of this body know that he was 
faithful to his trust and competent to discharge its duties. 
Conscience and duty were his constant comjjanions. Hand in 
hand they walked with him. This was as he desired it should 
be, and their presence rounded out the perfection of the quiet 
contentment and peaceful satisfaction of his useful life. 

This dominant trait in the character of Senator Wilson 
was not confined to the sphere of his public service. As a 
member of the community in which his home was situate it 
was ever present with him. Hence while his standard of per- 
sonal and private conduct was of a high and exacting order, 
it was not void of a recognition of the element of weakness so 
often found in men. He recognized that men whose lives were 
not wholly in harmony with the standard which measured his 
own might still have done some deeds and effected some results 
which would make himself and all others of right tendencies 
their debtors. In such cases I feel (piite sure that he would 
have been willing to apply the words of Whittier, in respect 
of Burns, and have said : 

Let those who never erred forget 
His worth, iu vaiu bewailings; 
Sweet soul of song ! — I own my debt 
^ Uncanceled by his failings! 



Life and character of Ephraiui King Wilson. 23 

Nor would this have lowered the high character of the stand- 
ard which he had erected for the regulation of his own conduct. 
The more probable effect would have been to have drawn the 
attention of the erring ones to that biBtter rule of life and of 
action presented by his standard, at the base of which Justice 
and Mercy joined hands. Many incidents in the life and ex- 
periences of our departed associate illustrative of the sug- 
gestion I have expressed might be cited, but I will let them 
rest where he planted them and with an assurance that I may 
with truth repeat in his case the words of another: 

Man's works shall follow him. 

In other lines of life than those I have indicated our de- 
parted brother gave abundant evidence that he was what I 
have called him — a good man. His domestic life presents a 
picture of beauty, love, tranquillity, and happiness upon which 
we may look and in very truth exclaim: "There is no place 
like home." 

These descriptive words are few in number, but in compre- 
hensive reach thej' are without limit in respect of all facts and 
tendencies which carry us toward a realization of the best 
conditions of society. If they could truthfully be applied to 
all of the shelters of domestic life in this land, the necessity for 
the enactment of regulative laws by the nation and of the 
States would be greatly reduced. That this is not so is not 
the fault of the man to whose name we do honor to-day. He 
did his part. In his own case he succeeded. His example 
and eflforts aided many others. He was not selfish. He wished 
well to all. He worked for what he deemed the good of all. 
While in some resj^ects his judgment may have failed in its 
efforts to reach right conclusions, it did not do so in respect 
of those domestic conditions which constitute home life. It 
would never have been deemed inappropriate by his neighbors 



24 Address of Mr. Wilson^ of lowa^ on the 

for them to hear his domestic circle singing that soul-pleasing 
song, Sweet Home. And it may be truthfully said when tliat 
song and the conditions of the home in which it may be sung 
are in harmony peace and joy therein abound. 

It may be said that such liomes are effects, and that causes 
lie behind them. I will not dispute the correctness of this 
proposition. I prefer to admit that it is true, for the admissicm . 
opens the door to an inquiry the results of which will support 
every assertion I have made concerning the life and ways of 
Senator Wilson. Why was he the kind of man I have de- 
scribed '? Trace his life back to the home in which he was 
born and spent his childhood, and with which his youth and 
early manhood were connected, and there is found a chain of 
evidence of unbroken links connecting his sturdy excellence of 
character as we knew him with surroundings and influences 
ever present in the home of his parents. Tliey were members 
of the Presbyterian Church, and religious thougths, methods, 
and incentives to light action were always active in evolving 
the correct and admirable traits of character which M^e know 
Senator Wilson possessed, and which assured to him the re- 
spect and confidence of every member of this body who served 
with him during the years of his membership here. 

The influences which I have named as ever present in the 
home of his parents failed not in their action upon him. Day 
by day he felt their ever present force, and as the passing years 
moved him on to that period of life A\hen he could appreciate 
the lessons which they evolved, he appropriated it unto him- 
self as a rule of action, and obeyed it to the close of his life. 
He came to realize that — 

The f^reat Creator to revere 
Must Kiire becoiiie the creature. 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 25 

He took to himself tbe lesson wliicli the conditions of the 
parental home life taught him with tirm resolve : 

Not for to bide it in a hedge, 

Nor for a train attendant ; 
But for the glorious privilege 

Of being independent. 

To the practicalities and daily routine of his life he applied 
that lesson, and through all the years and experiences of his 
temporal journey it assured to him aii independence of action 
which belongs only to those whose motives, actions, and lives 
are open books for all to read and understand. Such independ- 
ence always gives happiness to its possessor, who is never 
weighted down by any secret which he fears may come to the 
knowledge of others. This character of independency accom- 
l)anied Senator Wilson from the home of his childhood, where 
the religious teachings and influences of his parents prepared . 
him for that journey of life which closed in the home of his own 
family, where like conditions were ever i)resent. All along the 
journey of his life this element of strength accompanied him. 
In early home, in school, in private occupations, in the domestic 
circle, in public station, and in the presence of that messenger 
who summoned him to enter upon the life elysian this element 
of strength was ever with him. This proves that by him its 
presence was ever welcome; tliat his heart and mind were ever 
open to it. 

Mr. President, we do but perform a duty by according formal 
recognition to the admirable traits of chara(;ter ever present in 
the life of Senator Wilson. Let not our remembrances of him 
end with this day. We owe it to ourselves as well as to him 
that this shall not be. The lines of the years which measured 
his life do also encircle a tield of reminiscences where we may 
gather facts, test principles, study motives, and learn how 
surely moral forces and religious influences tend to promote 



26 Address of Mr. Berry ^ of Arkansas^ on the 

the best interests of the iudividual, the home, the family, and 
the community. We may do all of this and not sever contact 
with the actual facts of his personal experiences in life. And 
this but proves that all that I have said in respect of the high 
standard of his character, the facts, methods, influences, and 
motives which developed and established it, and the results 
which came to himself and others therefrom constitute but a 
true story of his life. This being the case, I feel free to ear- 
nestly repeat the injunction I have heretofore uttered — let not 
remembrances of him end with this day. The lessons embraced 
in the lines of his life may be helpful to all who remain on 
Time's side of the portal through which he has passed from us 
to the life elysian. He has gone from us, but the lessons 
remain Ivith us, and if studied and rightly used will give 
strength to all who advance toward the portal through which 
he has i)assed. 



Address of Mr, Berry, of Arkansas, 

Mr. Berry : Mr. President, when I came here in March, 1885, 
I met for the lirst time Hon. E. K. Wilson, who had a few days 
before taken his seat in this body as a Senator from the State 
of Maryland. He was then i)ast the meridian of life, had served 
in the other House of Congress, and for many years as judge 
of the court in his State, and was in full possession of strong, 
vigorous, and well-(!ultivated intellectual powers. From that 
time until Ills deatli in February, 18!>1, 1 sat near liiiu in this 
Chamber, and learned to know him intimately and well. 

I know from the character of tlie man and from conversations 
htid witli him that the idea Avould have been peculiarly and cs- 
l)e<Mally disagreeable to him if he iiad thought that any Sena- 



Life and character of EpJiraim King Wilson. 27 

tor here would after his death overstate, embellish, or exagger- 
ate iu any way his abilities, his virtues, or his good qualities. 
I would not willingly disregard his wishes in this behalf, and 
yet it is difficult to speak of him as he was without seeming to 
exaggerate to those who did not know him well. Judge Wil- 
son was ])eculiarly andin a marked degree a jnodest man, and 
I think in his own mind liabitually underrated and underesti- 
mated his powers and his abilities. He was a man of studious 
habits, and with strangers retiring in his disposition. He had 
read and thought much. He knew the history of his own and 
other countiies well. He was an accurate and profcmnd hnv- 
yer, and had made a special study of the Constitution of the 
United States. 

He was thoroughly familiar with all of its clauses and sec- 
tions, with the reasons given by its framers for their adoption, 
together with the rulings and decisions of the Supreme Court 
bearing upon each. And the vSpeeches made by him here as to 
the powers and duties of Congress under the Constitution en- 
title him to rank with the ablest lawyers of the Senate. There 
is running through all of these speeches a purity of thought 
and purpose, a devotion to duty, a love of country, and an 
earnest desire for the happiness and i)rosperity of the people 
that show him t(,) have been a ])atriot and a true man. 

Judge Wilson was not a great leader of men, nor did he 
desire to be; he was too modest and unassuming for that; he 
did not possess that. aggressiveness, that self-assertion, that 
inborn desire to control and direct the actions of others that is 
necessary to successful leadership. And yet the knowledge of 
iuen and their conduct, the quick perception of justice, of right 
and wrong, and firmness in adhering to principle were qualities 
that he possessed to an unusual degree. I have never known 
a more thoroughly honest man or a purer man iu each and all 
of his acts, both public and juivate. 



28 Address of Mr. Berry ^ of Arkansas., on the 

Diiriug the six years that I was associated with him I never 
knew him to do an act that a gentleman ought not to do, or that 
could justly be the subject of criticism ; and when his mind and 
conscience were convinced that he was right, no persuasion and 
no influence could swerve or change him from his course. I dis- 
tinctly remember a conversation I had with him shortly before 
his death. It was in regard to a bill pending here to whicli we 
were both strongly opposed. I asked him, in case it became 
necessary to defeat it, if he thought we would be justified in 
withholding our votes for the purpose of breaking a quorum, and 
he answered me in substance that he regarded the bill as a very 
bad one; that it would work great injury to the people of tlie 
country, and especially to the people of the Southern States ; that 
he was bound to those people by many ties, and especially by the 
fact that his favorite brother had fallen in battle a soldier in the 
Southern army, and that there was no personal sacrifice that 
lie would not make to serve them, or to prevent injury to the 
country in which they lived ; but the Constitution required him 
as a Senator to vote if present, that he had sworn to obey it, and 
that he dared not violate his oath. 

And this, Mr. President, was in keeping with his whole life 
and the principle upon whicli he acted in every case. Without 
any x^ietense and u-ithout parade of superior virtue he did the 
right as he saw the right. Judge Wilson lived for years in 
the constant expectation of sudden death; he knew that tlie 
disease from which he was suffering was liable to cause his 
death at any moment; he often spoke of it, not lightly or irrev- 
erently, nor in an}^ gloomy or desponding way, but calmlj'aud 
courageously, as a brave man would speak of something that 
could not be avoided, and that he was ready to meet without 
fear of the fnture. bnt that he hoped might be posti)oned for 
the sake of liis wif<' and daughters, who were dependent upon 
him, and to whom he was devotedly attached. Judge Wilson 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 29 

believed in the Christian religion with all the faith and con- 
fidence of a. little child, or, as he once said, that he had no 
more doubt of its trutli than he had that sooner or later death 
would come to us all. 

Such is a simple statement of the life and character of the 
deceased Senator as it was impressed upon me. He was the 
highest and best tj'pe of the old-time Southern gentleman — 
brave, generous, open, direct, and unsuspicious, despising 
fraud, false pretense, and double dealing of every character, 
full of charity for the faults and mistakes of others, always 
respectful and deferential to all womanhood, thoughtful and 
considerate of the feelings of all with whom he came in con- 
tact, devoted to his country, his home, and his family, he lived 
and died the true gentleman and the true man. As I stood 
by his deathbed in the presence of his weeping wife and 
daughter, I could but feel that it was impossible for any man 
to have been intimately associated with him, without having 
a higher and better opinion of his fellow-nian, and without 
feeling also that for one who had done his duty so faithfully 
and well here, it could not be otherwise than well with him 
hereafter. 



Address of Mr. Platt, of Connecticut. 

Mr. President : An exacting and somewhat impatient pub- 
lic is at times disposed to criticise the Senate because on oc- 
casions when one of our members has deceased we pause for an 
hour and lay aside the intense work of Senatorial life to recall 
his virtues and to pay our tribute of respect to his memory, 1 
think the Senate does well to pause. I think it is well at times 
to forget the intense, practical, utilitarian life which we live 
and turn our thoughts to other features of life. 



30 Address of Air. Flatty of Co7i7iecticut^ on the 

" Life" and " death " are the two most momentous words in 
our language. Their correspondents are the most momentous 
words in every language. Each is equally a mystery. 

Life is a thing of daily experience. From the time when we 
first know that we live till we pass off the stage we are daily 
conscious of living. We enjoy life and cling to it. Death is 
not a matter of human experience. No man has experienced 
death. We only know that we shrink from it. It seems to me 
sometimes that these matters of life and death and their issues 
are of such transcendent importance, are of so much more con- 
sequence than the affairs of state, important as they are, that 
we do not think half enough of them. 

I beheve, then, it is well for the Senate to pause at times — to 
let a calm as of the holy Sabbath stillness steal over this room, 
where there is so much of contention and strife and struggle, 
that we may think ui)on what we are and what we are to be. 

I can not speak of the deceased Senator from the standpoint 
of an intimate personal friendship. Indeed, the associations 
of Senators here seldom result in close and intimate friend- 
ships. We all come to the Senate somewhat late in life; the 
Constitution prevents very young men from entering the Sen- 
ate, and the ties of close personal friendship are not often 
formed after the years when men usually enter this body. And 
yet there is something growing out of our relations, some- 
thing growing out of daily association in this Chamber, even 
if we do not see one another in the home, which I think 
leads us to appreciate a fellow Senator perhaps as much as in 
the case of intimate personal friendship outside of' the Senate 
Chamber. We come intuitively, as it were, to know each other; 
and I think in no body in the world does a man pass for what 
he really is and in no other body is a man so well known by his 
associates and comrades as liere in the Senate. 

So 1 feel to-day that 1 have a right to speak a word in mem- 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 31 

ory of tlie deceased ; that I have a rigiit to lay my tribute upon 
liis grave; that I have a right to mingle my voice with the 
voices of those who were his more intimate personal friends. 

He imj)ressed me as being eminently a statesman, a gentle- 
man of the olden time, a gentleman of the universal type, in 
the best sense of that word — a gentle mau, one whose train of 
thought and expression reminded us of the times past, when 
this Government was in its infancy — and, sitting here to-day, 
I have thought that his appearance in the Senate Chamber 
was very much M^hat we might expect if Samuel Chase and 
Charles Carroll of Carrolltou, who signed the Declaration of 
Independence, or Luther Martin, who was so conspicuous in 
the Constitutional Convention, were permitted to come and. 
take their seats in this Chamber. 

He Avas a surviving representative and type of that class of 
men. He was simple, affable, courteous, dignified in his bear- 
ing, as he was faithful, earnest, and patriotic in his character. 
He was more than that — he was a Christian gentleman; and 
in these days, when men struggle for fame and position and 
for what are supposed to be the honors of this earthly life, it 
is well to remember that there is no honor higher than that of 
a Christian gentleman. He acted well his part, and we are 
told that "there all the honor lies." 

He has gone from us, and 1 am sorry to say that when an as- 
sociate departs from among us or from the walks of life we are 
apt to ask two questions about the deceased: Was he rich? 
As the world measures riches, I do not know and I do not care. 
I know, whether he had pecuniary means and wealth or not, 
that he was rich in all those qualities of mind and heart which 
ennoble human nature; and that in that sense he was rich. 
Was he great? I do not know, because I do not know what 
constitutes greatness. I do not know by what standard we 
are to judge men when we call them great. I know that no 



32 Address of Mr. Piatt, of Connecticut, on the 

man can be honored by a State like Maryland with a seat in 
this body and be reelected with unanimity who is not able and 
strong, and who has not earned in some way the confldence of 
the people whom he represents. 

It is enough for me to know this about him. And I know, 
too, that it may well satisfy human ambition to be able to rep- 
resent a State in this Chamber, and to so possess the confi- 
dence of one's constituents as to be thus reelected. 

Greatness is often factitious, deceptive; it is often wrought 
out for men by various means. I know that the deceased Sena- 
tor never struggled to be esteemed great. I know that he 
would never make use of any means to parade himself in his 
State or in the nation as a great man. I know that he had no 
desire for what is called a national reputation ; that he was 
content if he were known and appreciated within the borders 
of the State where he was born and where, I have no doubt, 
he looked forward with pleasure, if one can be pleased with 
such prospect, to sleeping in its soil. Senators who knew him 
most fully have said to day, in our hearing, that he was a good 
njau, a pure man, an honest man. Are not these qualities 
after all the real essentials of true greatness ? 

He has left us. One Saturday afternoon, in the busiest and 
most intense period of our legislation, he left his seat, appar- 
ently as well as usual, and apparently with no notice that he 
was to be summoned away, and on the Tuesday following he 
was gone. 

Has that life wliich so impressed itself upon us — for his life 
has impressed itself upon ours — ended ? It is said that no 
man lives for himselt^ no true man lives entirely in himself, 
but also ill tlie lives of otliers with whom he associates and 
upon wliom he impresses his own character. Has that life 
ended! Hope says no. Faitli adds its negative; reason con- 
vinces us that it is not ended. So we hope, we believe, ami in 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 33 

the ligbt of revelation we know, that the mortal life which 
was 80 developed aud rounded out here has now begun its 
period of immortal development and growth, aud that if we 
are true, as he was true, we may yet meet him, who has but 
gone away, in that other world where all strife and struggle 
shall cease, except the strife as to who may best perform the 
will of the lufinite Master. 



Address of Mr. Gray, of Delaware. 

Mr. Presideist : I came into tliis body on the same day 
with Judge Wilson, aud though I had long known him by 
reputation I had never met him before. Our acquaintance 
then begun ripened into a friendship which grew stronger 
with each succeeding year, and continued unbroken until that 
sad night when I stood beside his dying bed and witnessed 
through my tears the last expiring sigh which released his 
chafing spirit and marked the close of his honored and useful 
life. 

It is not for me to dwell at length upon his character as de- 
veloped in the State in which he lived, and in the atmosphere 
of home and neighborly surroundings; but it is pleasant for 
me now to recall that my own State and the eastern shore of 
Maryland, where Judge Wilson passed his life, are essentially 
one community. The lower peninsula of Delaware and of the 
Eastern Shore counties of Maryland aud Virginia is geograph- 
ically unique. Its isolation before the days of modern trans- 
portation compelled a business and social intercourse which 
threw its people upon their own resources and produced a 
homogeneity of population, interests, and feeling that is largely 
observable down to the present day. Its people are the de- 
S. Mis. 229 3 



34 Address of Mr. Gray^ of Delaivare^ on the 

scendents of tbe original English settlers, witli little or no for- 
eign admixture since the war of the devolution. And the 
sturdy virtues of the original stock have been preserved and 
strengthened under the opportunities presented by a fertile 
soil, abundant room, and free institutions. 

ISTowhere have the best traditions and instincts of the Anglo- 
Saxon race taken deeper root than in tbis region, or more con- 
spicuously borne their natural fruit of individual liberty pro- 
tected by law, and of that developed capacity for self-govern- 
ment which has made possible the distinctive American com- 
monwealth, and which remains the surest safeguard of its per- 
petuity. 

Born of the best of this stock. Judge Wilson, by the in- 
herited tendency of an honorable lineage, molded by such an 
environment, developed that beautiful and well-rounded 
character that it is our pride to speak of as typically American. 

No truer representative of an intelligent, honest, and noble 
people ever held commission on this floor. With no alloy of 
selfishness or self-seeking to mar the fair proportions of his 
character, he seemed to avoid rather than seek the distinction 
of public office, and the State that delighted to honor him, 
whether in high judicial station or as one of its representa- 
tives in one branch and the other of the Federal Congress, 
honored itself in so choosing him. High individual character 
must always be th^ most valued product of a free State, and on 
the other hand no contribution can be made by the citizen to 
the upbuilding of his State and the well-being of its society 
more valuable and enduring than the high character himself 
achieves by the practice of private and civic virtues. This 
contribution Judge Wilson made in full measure to his State 
and to the nation. 

His was a rare combination of intellectual and moral 
strength. His opinions on public questions were not hastily 



Life and character of Ephraini King Wilson. 35 

formed, but were the result of careful aud painstaking investi- 
gation, by a well-disciplined mind, and were vitalized by an 
earnest moral nature. Judge Wilson thought and reasoned 
honestly, and a certain intellectual integrity characterized his 
mental processes and gave an almost religious strength and 
fervor to his convictions. These he could not compromise, 
much less surrender. 

It is not surprising that such a man should impress himself 
strongly on those with whom he came in contact. But Judge 
Wilson had a natural reserve, and was so free from anything 
like self-exploitation, that only those who became well ac- 
quainted with him and were honored with his friendship 
could fully appreciate the value of his counsel, and the wisdom 
that cliaracterized his thoughtful utterances. His judgment 
on public questions was often sought by his party associates, 
and was freely and fearlessly though withal modestly given. 
His speeches were always carefully prepared, and were char- 
acterized by clearness of thought, logical presentation of the 
matter in hand, and a sincerity of conviction that was itself 
persuasive. He never failed to secure respectful attention 
from the members of this body, as well from those who differed 
as from those who agreed with him politically. 

These speeches as they are preserved in the record of our de- 
bates will be an enduring monument to his broad statesmanship, 
and a valuable contribution to the political thought of our time. 
But their present effect was due to the high, sincere character 
that was behind them. Such a character is stronger always than 
speech. The latter is only one mode of expression of the former ; 
but there are a hundred other ways, often unseen, in which 
character exerts its potent influence on the thoughts and actions 
of men. We all felt stronger and safer for Judge Wilson's 
presence among us. Low or unworthy conceptions of public 



36 Address of Mr. Mitchell, of Oregon, on the 

duty could not assert themselves or thrive in the moral atmos- 
phere that surrounded Judge Wilson. He was — 

The still stronij man iu a blataut laiul — 

SO beautifully described in "In Memoriam." 

If time permitted it would be j)leasant to dwell upon those 
tender graces of his character which so endeared him to his 
friends and made friends of so many. The quiet genial smile 
with which he greeted you, and the genuine courtesy of his 
manner, were the outward expression of an inward grace; with 
an unobtrusive consideration for others, and an unaffected 
suppression of self; with an unvaunted, but always present, 
through quiet courage, he filled the ideal of a Christian gen- 
tleman. Clear in his high office, conscientious in the discharge 
of every duty, with unclouded mind and unabated Christian 
fortitude, he calmly awaited the inevitable end that sooner or 
later must come to all. As we stood by his open grave in the 
old churchyard at Snow Hill, where we laid him to rest in the 
soil of the State he loved so well and served so faithfully, the 
prayer of the Psalmist almost involuntarily rose to our lips, 
"Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be 
like his." 



ADDRESS OF Mr. Mitchell, of Oregon. 

• Mr. President : I respond with pleasure but in sorrow to 
the i'equ(*st of the friends of our late colleague to add a worii 
of tribute to Ids memory. 

When Ephraim K. W^ilson, late a Senator from the State of 
Maryland, responded to the call of the (Jreat Master, a good 
man in the broadest sense of that term, an able, efficient, and 
faithful Senator, i)assed to liis rest. 



Life and character of EpJiraim King Wilson. 37 

It is, perhaps, a custom, wliicli would doubtless be " more 
honored in the breach than the observance, " to indulge in ex- 
aggerated eulogium on occasions like the present. While 
desiring to avoid subjecting myself to this criticism, I feel con- 
strained to say it has never been my good fortune to become 
associated, either in public or private' life, with a man more 
justly entitled to universal esteem, or more lovable in all 
respects, than was the late Senator Wilson. For six years 1 
had the honor of being associated with him in the performance 
of the arduous duties of two important committees of the Sen- 
ate—Claims and Post-Offices and Post-Eoads. 

The intimate official and personal association which this serv- 
ice together of necessity created, afforded ample opportunity 
to become thoroughly acquainted with our late colleague in 
the several capacities of lawyer, judge, legislator, and private 
gentleman; and thus knowing him, no words of mine can 
appropriately or adequately express the high esteem with 
which I came to regard him long ere he was called to pay that 
greatest of all debts which nature and nature's God exact 
sooner or later of every individual of the human race. 

Senator Wilson was in many respects — yes, I may say in all 
respects, a model man. Modest and retiring in disposition, 
courteous and kind in demeanor, he at all times, on all occa- 
sions, from all with whom he came in contact, compelled the 
very highest order of esteem and won univers al respect. Firm 
in his convictions, deliberate in action, conscientious in the 
discharge of every duty, earnest and able in the advocacy of 
the right as he understood it, unsparing and even caustic in 
his denunciatiou of that which be believed to be wrong, he 
stood in all these respects a peer among the very best of his 
associates both within and without the Senate. 

Judge Wilson was an able lawyer. There was nothing 
erratic in his mental make-up. He possessed that rare faculty 



38 Address of Mr. Mitchell^ of Oregon^ on th e 

of quickly noticing and accurately marking legal distinctions. 
He had a judicial mind. He readily comprehended and was 
quick to grasp the nature and scope of a legal proposition, and 
he seldom failed in accurately defining its boundaries, or in 
making correct application of the principle involved to the facts 
of the casein hand. He approached the investigation of a case 
with the utmost care, with scrupulous exactness, always bring- 
ing to bear upon it the most thorough research, and not until 
he had completely mastered every detail of both fact and law in- 
volved was he willing to define" his position and rest his judg- 
ment. In the performance of official duty, industry, conscien- 
tiousness, and thoroughness were with him marked character- 
istics. 

He was not an orator. His speeches in the Senate, while 
characterized by faultless diction and good literary taste, were 
not eloquent in phrase, but consisted rather of plain and accu- 
rate statements of facts and principles, followed by logical de- 
ductions and forceful arguments. His speeches were well cal- 
culated to carry conviction by reason of his faultless premises 
and correct reasoning. They were free, however, from any 
attempt at embellishment — to please the fancy or excite the 
imagination with the flowers of rhetoric. 

He was a plain man of the older and better type. While in 
his daily life he was genial, companionable, and unostenta- 
tious, he was nevertheless always dignified in bearing, and in 
his intercom-vse witli his fellow-men all the characteristics of 
the trne Southern gentleman were always manifest. Well 
grounded in the current literature of the day, lu^ was wholly 
free from the arts of the pt^daut. 

He was an able and safe committeeman, a Avise counselor, 
an upright judge. As a member of the Committee on Claims, 
so great was the confidence reposed in him by his associates, 
both in respect of his legal ability to analyze and develop the 



Life and cJiaractcr of Ephraini King Wilson. 39 

real merits of a claim and of his absolute impartiality as be- 
tween claimant and the Government, that when he stated his 
conclusion it was, as a rule, accepted nem. con. And to-day if 
in the investigation of a case in that committee the statement 
is made that such case had at some prior time been examined 
and reported upon by the late Senator Wilson of Maryland, 
his report is immediately procured and his conclusions almost 
invariably adopted without further debate. 

The State he has served so faithfully in the capacity of judge 
and legislator may in its past history have produced more emi- 
nent, more brilliant men, but in those great qualities of moral 
worth, integrity of purjjose, and unflinching fidelity to every 
public and private trust, no one of them, however eminent, how- 
ever brilliant, however good or great in all respects, is justly 
entitled to any more honorable mention or any more prominent 
place ifl the history of the State or nation. The captivating 
eloquence of a Winter Davis, the magic logic and surpassing- 
power of argument of a Reverdy Johnson, may through the 
pages of history linger with matchless insi^iration on the ears 
of future generations, to charm the fancy and incite the imagi- 
nation of men ; yet from those same historic pages is reflected 
the record of the genial, modest, noble life of our deceased col- 
league, which will live in history as one well worthy of imita- 
tion — a lesson to instruct, when the mere eloquence of words 
and the masterly logic of a great mind have lost their poten- 
tiality and wasted their power to charm. 

In the deatli of the late Senator Wilson I confess having ex- 
perienced a personal loss, and in sorrow I submit this brief but 
imperfect tribute to his memory. What a blessed satisfaction 
it must be to those who stood in closer relationship, bound to 
him by tender kindred ties, that the life that has gone out was 
so completely faultless, so free from all blemish, so pure, so 
exceptionally good ! It is indeed with saddened hearts, moist- 



40 Address of Mr. Mitchell, of Oregon, on the 

ened eyes, and inexpressible sorrow we take final earthly leave 
of a loved one as he stands on the brink of that dark and silent 
river; and when the phantom boat with its mnftied oars and 
unseen sails moves noiselessly out across its measureless 
waters, bearing such loved one to the hidden shore of that 
"undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler re- 
turns," the heart grows weary and life seems to us worse than 
death, and to us to die seems better than to live. But then it 
is when encompassed by this whirlwind of sorrow that the 
knowledge of the fact, if fortunately the fact it be, that the 
record of the life obscured is such an one as marks the career, 
both public and private, of our late colleague, comes to the 
rescue, the sun breaks through the rifting clouds and again we 
think it good to live. 

An able lawyer, a faithful, practical, efficient legislator, an 
upright judge, a modest, unassuming, dignified private gentle- 
man has preceded us in the journey to the tomb. But he has 
left a monument to his name and fame more enduring than 
marble shaft and imperishable as the stars— a monument 
budded by himself. It is the proud, the spotless record of a 
I)ure, active, unostentatious, and useful public and private life. 
Peace to the ashes of the distinguished dead ! His life was 
gentle as a mother's love and pure as the mountain stream. 
His name will be revered and his virtues treasured in the minds 
and hearts of his countrymen, but by none with greater devo- 
tion and fidelity than those who kn<'wliini best. 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson, 41 



Address of Mr. Pasco, of Florida . 

Mr. President : During the closing hours of the Fifty-first 
Congress two of our distinguished colleagues departed this 
life; one, after suffering for months from a lingering and 
painful disease, which had made his seat longfvacant before the 
filial summons came, the other, after a brief iliness, previous 
to which he had been in engaged with his usual assiduity in 
the daily discharge of his duties in this Chamber. They were 
both near the borderline of the allotted time of man; Senator 
Hearst had passed over it some six months before, and Senator 
Wilson would have crossed it before the completion of the year 
upon which he had entered. The exacting demands of public 
business so near the close of the session did not permit their sur- 
viving colleagues to notice these sad events immediately after 
their occurrence in the manner established and sanctioned by 
the time-honored practice of this body, and it has been deferred 
to the present session to pay the usual tributes to the memo- 
ries of those whose terms were thus prematurely closed. 

My intimacy and association with Senator Wilson during 
the few years I have been honored with a seat in the Senate 
justify me in taking a personal part in the exercises of this day, 
which has been set apart to pay fitting tributes to his memory, 
and my admiration and regard for him make it a pleasant privi- 
lege to speak of his excellent qualities, his many virtues, his 
recognized ability as a lawyer, his faithful devotion to his duties 
as a public officer. 

When I first came here as a member of this body, more 
than four years ago, I was assigned to a seat that brought me 
very near to him. I also found myself associated with him upon 
one of the hard-working committees of the Senate, and in our 



42 Address of Mr. Pasco^ of Florida^ on the 

daily association and the frequent discussions and consultations 
of the committee room we had excellent opportunities of form- 
ing correct opinions of one another, and our acquaintance gradu- 
ally ripened into a mutual friendship. 

He enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education, and after 
graduating at Jefferson College in Pennsylvania he studied 
and practiced law and for six years was judge of the circuit 
in which his home was included. His associates upon the 
Committee on Claims of this body will all bear testimony to 
the diligence with which he investigated matters committed to 
him for examiimtion, the* readiness with which he discerned 
the important points of a case, the clearness with which he 
stated his conclusions, the strength of argument with which 
he f»)rtified these conclusions in the committee room, and, 
when it became necessary, on the floor of the Senate. Al- 
though one of the older members of the committee he shrank 
from no labor, he avoided no responsibility, and was seldom 
absent from the committee room when the time arrived for 
holding a meeting. And when important legal questions were 
discussed upon this floor he not infrequently submitted a pre- 
pared argument, which included the results of his study and 
investigation, and his colleagues, who were interested in the 
subject under discussion, always found it profitable and in- 
structive to listen to his statement of the question and the 
conclusions he had reached. 

The people of Maryland were fond of doing him honor. In 
addition to his judicial services he represented his county in 
the house of delegates, his district in the national House of 
Representatives, his State in tlu^ electoral college, and in 1885 
he became a meniber of this body. He had already been 
elected to serve a second term when his life of usefulness was 
closed before the new feriii commenced. In all these oflicial 
positions he sustaine<l liiinself \vell and discharged his duties 
earnj'stly, faithfuily, conscientiously, successfully. 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 43 

lu this busy world of Congressional life there are many and 
various fields of usefulness. Opportunities for distinction are 
afforded to men whose abilities and acquirements are altogether 
dissimilar and whose previous opportunities and attainments 
have been widely different. Some have made legislation their 
profession and are armed and equipped with a thorough knowl- 
edge of all its details. During a long experience in public 
life they have assisted in making history and know the inside 
as well as the outside workings of the principal events which 
have transpired within their period of observation and action. 
Some have spent the best years of their lives upon some i)ar- 
ticular subject until they have really become expertSj-^nd when 
matters come before us in which those subjects are involved, 
these specialists are in a position to render invaluable service 
to tlie country. 

The large majority of our membership, however, in both 
Houses come from the ordinary walks of life, and most fre- 
quently without any special training for the duties to be dis- 
charged here. They come from the different professions, from 
manufatturing interests, agricultural pursuits, mining- indus- 
tries, banking institutions, and other places of industry and 
activity. But whatever his previous experience a career is 
open to each. Some have a fondness and capacity for work 
that is done directly under the eye of the public and very 
naturally a higher estimate is put upon their services than 
upon the services of those whose best work is done in shap- 
ing the business of the body in the committee room and in 
the daily social intercourse of Senators with one another. 

The brilliant speech is discussed from one end of the coun- 
try to the other; but the carefully prepared repoft, which dis- 
poses of some great subject and includes the result of weeks of 
labor, is quietly filed away in the document room after its re- 
sults have been accepted and acted upon, and in the vast 



44 Address of Mr. Pasco., of Florida^ on the 

majority of cases it is never even read pnblicly before the 
Senate. But Senators know the great value of work of this 
sort, and we are better able to appreciate those by whom it 
is done than those are who only see the results and hear the 
public debates. 

Much of Senator Wilson's work was done in this qui&t, un- 
obtrusive way, though he was ever ready to defend his views and 
opinions publicly when the occasion required. He always thor- 
oughly mastered his subject, and his opponent could never 
present a phase of it that he had not studied and considered. 
But his best work was in preparing for his committee meetings 
and in his consultations with his associates in the committee 
room. During the six years of his service he examined many 
cases and subjects of very great importance, and left the results 
of his investigations among the printed reports of his commit- 
tee, where they will remain among our permanent records as 
silent witnesses of his ability and industry. His mind was emi- 
nently judicial, and there was no pride of opinion in him to keep 
him from modifying his decision, even up to the last moment 
that he had control of a case, if his researches or the light of 
the conference room developed new facts or clearer views of 
the law. 

It was in this quiet, unostentatious way that he went on the 
discharge of his duties here, enjoying the esteem of his asso- 
ciates and the confidence of the people whose interests he rep- 
resented. 

I have stated that death came to him after only a short warn- 
ing, but the visit was not unexpected. He had been looking 
for it for many months, and. at one time felt so doubtful as to 
whether he would live to ('om])lete his first term that he seri- 
ously contemplated whether he should not decline a reiilection. 
Some imi)rovement in his symptoms, however, caused him to 
dismiss this idea from his mind; but he used to talk of his 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 45 

symptoms and premonitions to his associates calmly and evi- 
dently without mental disturbance. He felt at times that he 
could not be sure of a single day and that he might be stricken 
down at any moment. 

But he was prepared for the change, and death had no terrors 
for him. His daily walk among- us attested the sincerity of the 
religious faith he professed. There was no ostentation about 
his religion, but during his long life it bore fruit, which proved 
it to be genuine. He was truthful, kind-hearted, gentle, for- 
bearing, free from malice and ill-will, generous, and just. No 
one who associated with him could doubt his sincerity. His 
faith and his works were in entire harmony. 

Senator Wilson was born at Snow Hill, on the eastern shore 
of Maryland. It is the county seat of Worcester County, a 
quiet little town, apart from the great lines of trade and travel, 
in the midst of an agricultm^al country, between the Atlantic 
and the Chesapeake. Here he grew up, and here his home 
life was spent among neighbors and family connections, who 
loved and respected him. 

It is in such quiet sections of our country, where there are 
comparatively few changes in the population, that life is spent 
most serenely. Men so situated do not hurry through the days 
of their usefulness in a mad rush for money and power and 
fame, and decay prematurely, but they grow old gradually, like 
the ripening grain, and enjoy the autumn of life with its mel- 
lowing tints. 

I was a member of the committee that accompanied the re- 
mains of our departed friend to this peaceftil home and saw on 
every side proofs of the high regard and respect in which he 
was held by all classes of his people. The coming of the funeral 
train had been announced by telegraph, and when we reached 
the section of country where he lived there were groups of 
people at every little station, white and black, who had col- 



46 Address of Mr. Dixon^ of Rhode Island^ on the 

lected to hear tlie particulars of liis death and show their re- 
spect for "the Judge," as he was familiarly called. 

When the burial services were held the morning after we 
reached Snow Hill, a large part of the population attended the 
funeral procession to the church where he had worshiped all his 
days, and the house was filled with an attentive congregation. 
We saw him laid at rest in the old-fashioned churchyard among 
the relatives and friends and neighbors who had gone before 
him to the life beyond. 

This was the last of earth to him. But what a grand de- 
parture from earth's scenes. What a noble ending of a well- 
spent life was his. Faithful to every trust, enjoying the love 
of his family and neighbors, retaining to the last the confi- 
dence of the people of Maryland, he laid down life's burdens 
and cares and entered upon his eternal rest. 

Well may the members of his family rejoice rather than sor- 
row as they contemplate his serene and peaceful and success- 
ful life and his happy departure j well may the great State that 
gave him birth and honored him in his lifetime delight to do 
honor to his memory. 



Address of Mr, Dixon, of Rhode Island, 

Mr. President : A custom, grateful in observance and ap^ 
propriate in ceremony, suspends the daily routine of the Sen- 
ate, while tlie iiidividual members of this body cease from labor. 

This is not alone because^ an associate has been taken from 
his place, not alone because of sorrow, for " the ,air is full of 
farewells to the dying," but because a part is wanting of the pre- 
scribed means and appliances in the Government; because a 
break is made in the constitutional construction of the Senate. 



Life and character of Ephraim Kijig Wilson. 47 

By the incideut of death, a great State has been deprived of 
her constitutional representation here. 

This, sir, it is that bids us pause while the tribute paid by 
the affectionate sorrow of those who here were his associates, 
to the memory of Ephraim K. Wilson, points to that place 
once so familiar to him, recalls that figure once so familiar to us, 
when daj^ by day as health permitted with unobstrusive dig- 
nity he met the duties of his office. He was known in his 
place in the Senate as an unassuming man of strong intellect, 
sound judgment, scholarly attainment, careful and thorough 
in investigation. He did not often take part in debate, yet 
when he did address the Senate he was heard with deference 
by his colleagues, for all knew that his words were studied, 
that his sentiments were expressed after mature deliberation, 
and free from the bias of partisanship. Although he viewed 
the great questions of national import and administration in 
the light of his political affiliation, he would not allow his judg- 
ment to be perverted by party considerations nor permit his 
party allegiance to interfere with the continuance of the busi- 
ness of this body for the purj)ose of accomplishing a i)arty ad- 
vantage. Steadfast to his official obligations, constant in his 
service, his patriotism directed his partisanship. 

Learned in the law, his knowledge, guided by a sound 
judgment, brought him to conclusions in which his associates 
were apt to coincide when he had expressed the reasoning 
which led to his decision. Gifted with great mental pouer, 
trained by assiduous study, with rare perception, governed by 
a strict regard to the dictates of conscience in all things, he 
endeavored to do exact and equal justice. 

His familiar Mends knew that he was conscious of an infirm- 
ity that some day would loose the silver cord and break the 
pitcher at the fountain. Full well he knew that in his daily, 
life he must ayoid excitement, that he must shun the combat 
and live apart from strife if he would live out many days. 



48 Address of Mr. Dixoji^ of Rhode Island.^ on tJie 

I first met Mr. Wilson at the beginning of tlie last Congress ; 
we were assigned upon the same committee. In frequent meet- 
ings, the singular, almost feminine gentleness of his character, 
appealed to me; while, perhaps, disparity in years and strength 
moved him to tell me of himself, and of the care that he had 
exercised, made necessary by his ailment— an ever-present 
and impending shadow. 

Others, in more fitting diction than I could use, have here re- 
called Mr. Wilson's service to his State and country; have told 
how willingly the people of his State had honored him ; of his 
career while arbitrating their disputes, as judge, and then be- 
stowed the expression of their highest confidence by elevating 
him to be their Senator. Not once, for he was just about to 
enter on a second term of service in the Senate when the 
shadow rested, and in the moment of its resting a change had 
come, and Ephraim K. Wilson had " entered into converse 
with the mighty dead." 

Mr. President, it is difficult to say what is the measure of a 
man. To the possession of great wealth some ascribe success; 
in the expression of popular applause some see the culmination 
of desire; the adulation paid to conquering heroes some think 
the highest aim of human ambition ; while others who recall 
the day when that place— his place that had been— just across 
this Chamber was draped with black, while on the outer door- 
way to tills room in heavy folds was hung the. emblem of our 
mourning, the conspicuous tokens that death had entered here, 
might think that this could measure what he Avas. But, when 
the sui»reme moment comes and fiiding sight leaves sightless 
eyiBs, we do not measure men by such rude scales. 

It is the custom when a meml)er of this body dies, that some 
of his companions, appointed by the presiding officer, shall rep- 
resent the Senate at the funeral. With others, I performed 
that service, and journeyed from the Capitol to JMr. Wilson's 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 49 

home. A company of mourners— for all were mourners— gath- 
ered in and round the church where Mr. Wilson in his life 
had met in worship with bis friends. It seemed as if the whole 
community had gathered there to do him reverence. 

Old men were in that company, whose whitened locks and fee- 
ble steps betoken that their separation from their friend would 
not be long; young men were there, and through their tears 
looked on the face of him who had been from their youth their 
counsellor and friend ; and children, too, had come in sorrow ; 
and all were mourners; not because a Senator was dead, no. 
because a leader of the people had passed away, but because 
their neighbor, their kind, true, noble-hearted friend had 
passed the " portal we call Death." And when the man of 
God arose a solemn silence fell upon the congregation, broken 
oidy by the preacher's voice as he rehearsed in part the story 
of Mr. Wilson's life, spoke of him as a friend, a neighbor, and 
a man, and bade the youth to emulate the virtues of the man 
who was their father's friend and theirs; spoke words of com- 
fort to them, and, quoting from the word of him who when on 
earth had said, " I am the resurrection and the life," told them 
they should not grieve as those who have no hope. Tenderly 
the friends of earlier years bore their dead friend into the httle 
churchyard, called in ancient Saxon phrase '" God's acre," and 
there committed his ashes to the earth and his spirit unto Him 

who gave it. 

As we turned to leave that new-made grave, that little 
^'chambei that faces toward the sunrising," I looked into the 
faces of his mourning Mends, old men and young, and each 
one told how good he was, how gentle and how kind; how he 
had ministered to the wants of those in need, had sympathized 
with those who were distressed. The whole community had 
sought his counsel, and in perplexity had gone to him for aid; 
and as they told the story, into my mind came that old tale 
S. Mis. 229 4 



50 Address of Mr. Gibson^ of Maryland.^ on the 

about the search for that rare face, cut strong, yet kind, 
against the sky. The rugged rocks set in the mountain side, 
so massive and so grand, when viewed from one position, show 
the form and feature of the human face. So it seemed to me, 
I had viewed him. In his place here, the strong and sturdy 
mind, set in the structure of the Government; and when I 
viewed him there, that one position gave a new picture, and I 
beheld the kindliest, gentlest phase of his whole character. 
There his greatness only made his character more gentle, there 
his fame but made his life more kind ; and I saw the measure 
of that man in the sorrow of his friends. 

• We eulogize the dead, raise monuments to heroes, embalm 
the memory of statesmen in the archives of the nation. The 
eulogy is forgotton, the monument crumbles, the archives of 
nations are obliterated, but such a life as Mr. Wilson lived is 
a memorial time can not destroy; for "each man makes his 
own stature, builds himself; virtue alone outbuilds the Pyra- 
mids; her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall." 



ADDRESS OF Mr. Gibson, of Maryland, 

Mr. President : While the arrows of death which flew so 
thick and fast among the ranks of tlie Fifty-first Congress rob- 
bed the councibof our country of many from other States witli 
whom it was our happy fortune to- meet, those of us from the 
State which 1 have the honor, in part, to represent are called 
upon to-day to mourn the loss of a personal friend and colleague. 

As a friend lamenting his death, and as a Senator of the 
United States, among the first and the earliest of my duties in 
this body, 1 to-day lay my tribute of respect upon the grave of 
myh(mored predecessor, the late Senator Ephraim K. Wilson. 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson, 51 

Cox, Nutting, and Wilber, of New York ; Randall, Kelley, and 
Watson, of Pennsylvania; Gay, of Louisiana; Laird, of Ne- 
braska; To wnshend, of Illinois; Walker, of Missouri, and Phe- 
lan, of Tennessee, in the House; Avliile Beck, Wilson, and 
Hearst, in the Senate, complete the dread list of those who fell 
victims to the grim reaper death. 

As thus conspicuous, Mr. President, as was the Fifty-first 
Congress in the death of its members, it suffered no more 
serious loss than in the death of Senator Wilson. 
The insatiate archer found no more shining mark than in him. 
In the city of Washington, at ten minutes past 10, on Tues- 
day night, February 24, 1891, Senator Wilson died of heart 
disease. He sank away without pain. 

He was conscious almost to the last. When asked if he suf- 
fered any pain his lips moved in answer: ''No." 

He had for some time had a premonition of death. It seems, 
in talking to an associate— Senator Berry of Arkansas— 
shortly before his death, he remarked : " I have heart disease, 
and fear it will carry me off like a flasli some day." 

I entered Congress with him in 1885, he having been elected 
to the Senateby theprecediug legislature, while I had just been 
elected to my first term in th^ House. I qualified as a mem- 
ber of the House when Congress first assembled, early in 
December, but he was unable to take the oath of office as a 
member of the Senate until the 19th of March following. 

His delay in taking- his seat in the Senate was due to his 
desperate illness, from the first attack of what, it seems, he 
felt himself was to be the fatal malady which would take him 
oif sooner or later. * 

When he first appeared in the Senate— speaking of himself 
afterwards with reference to that period— he said: "I have 
often thought of the startled gesture of surprise my friends 
made when they first saw me— a pale, thin, haggard man, just 



52 Address of Mr. Gibson^ of Maryland, on the 

arisen from a bed of dangerous and protracted illness !• To 
me small, tlien, indeed, did the cliances appear that I would 
live to serve in the Senate as long as I have." 

That terrible form of heart disease known as angina jjectoris 
had claimed him for its own, and for him there was never 
more of ho^e in this world. His friends— myself among the 
number — did not appreciate this fact; but he knew it, and we 
now realize that he appreciated it. " He knew that the angel 
of death had come near him before," and " wondered why he 
had stayed his dart." 

As time drew on he recovered, apparently, his usual good 
health. His friends felt that the grand climacteric of his life 
had been reached and successfully passed, and were looking 
forward for him for a new lease of life of usefulness to his 
State and country. Alas, how little they knew. 

For many weeks and months did he bear with silent solici- 
tude and noble reticence the consciousness of a painful and 
fatal malady. " The specter of death had been ever with him, 
the unbidden guest at every feast, and the companion of everj- 
waking hour." He walked in the very valley of the shadow of 
death. And yet all the while he sought to have those- 
about him infer that his eye had not grown dim, and that 
neither was his natural force abated. 

Senator Wilson's life, from his youth up, was passed 'mid 
the scenes and associations of that beloved section of the 
State where he was born. He was never far away from '• the 
brooks by which, in early life, he sported." He lived under 
the tiees his fatliers had ])hinted, enjoyed their shade, and 
was nourished by their fruit. 

While his life was not one of vicissitudes, it was not an un- 
evaiitful one. He was born December 21, 1821, at Sno\A- Hill, 
Worcester County, on the eastern shoreof Maryland, a section 
of his State he was specially called to represent as a Senator 
of the United States. 



Life and character of Ephraim King IVilson. 53 

After being admitted to the bar, in 1848, be opened a law 
office in bis native town of Snow Hilb His faitbfubiess to all 
tbe duties of life botb pubbc and private, soon brought bim 
clients and a lucrative practice, furnishing him at the same 
time with passports to universal confidence and esteem. 

He practiced law for twenty years, 'but the altercations of 
the profession and the excitement of the trial table were not 
congenial to his tastes, and we find him withdrawing from the 
bar, and, like Diocletian of old, retiring to the peaceful pur- 
suits of agriculture upon his farm, / 

Without desiring it, in 1872, he was nominated and elected 
to Congress, and distinguished himself to an extent rarely 
attained in one term. Contrary to the practically unanimous 
demand of his constituents, he declined a renomination, and 
again retired to the indulgence of quiet taste in farming and 
literary pursuits. He was not long, however, permitted to 
remain in retirement. 

In the winter of 1878 he was appointed by the governor of 
Maryland as associate judge to fill an unexpired term. In the 
following fall he was elected for a term of fifteen years as one 
of the associate justices of the first judicial circuit of Mary- 
land. 

He was elected to the United States Senate in January, 1884, 
to succeed Senator James B. Groome. His election to the 
United States Senate came as unexpectedly to him as did his 
election to the House of Eepresentatives. But the Senate of 
the United States was to him, after all, the forum of his efforts, 
and its honorable commendation waft the goal of his ambition. 
On January 15, 1890, he was elected for the term expiring 
March 4, 1897. Alas, that when his people commended this 
chalice of exultant satisfaction to his lips he should not be per- 
mitted to enjoy it ! He never lived to enter upon his second 
term. 



54 Address of Mr. Gibson.^ of Maryland.^ on the 

Judge Wilson was twice married. His first wife was Mary 
Dickerson, of Worcester Couuty, who left liim two children,- 
a daughter, Ella, and a son, W. Sidney Wilson. This son was 
the "apple of his father's eye," a man of magnificent i)hysique, 
pleasant address, happy social qualities, and of high position 
in his chosen profession of the law. He represented with hoi/or 
and distinction his county in the house of delegates of Mary- 
land, and was subsequently elected to the position of prose- 
cuting attorney for his county, a position which he now holds 
with distinguished success. 

In 1869 Judge Wilson married Miss Julia- A. Knox, of Snow 
Hill. Four children blessed that marriage, two sons and two 
daughter^ The sacred and tender relations of Judge Wil- 
son's domestic life were of the happiest character. In early life 
he was united to the Presbyterian Church, and he died in the 
faith of his fathers. Within the sacred precincts of the church- 
yard of old " Makmie Church," in the restoration of which he 
took such a leading i^art, his remains lie buried. 

I knew Senator Wilson well. I knew him in all the rela- 
tions of life — social, professional, and political. In all of these 
he more than measured up to all the requirements of the posi- 
tions in which those relations placed him. He was not an 
aggressive man in any sense. He was not wont to ride forth 
like a knight full-armed, with couched lance, to strike with 
pointed steel the shield <»f his adversary, challenging him to 
mortal combat, or with mighty mace or battle-ax cleave his 
way through the ranks of the opposition. He was not " a born 
leader of men," nor a "fighter "in the sense where blows were 
to be dealt and felt. He cared not to blaze a i)atli for himself 
through unbroken forests, but preferred rather to follow where 
otlMMs had led, content to make broader the patlis he trod, and 
smoother and brighter to travel because of liis having traveled 
therein himself. 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 55 

Yet be was not lackiug iu force of character. He liad strong 
convictions on all questions of public policy, and had the cour- 
age of his convictions. While the tenor of his life was even 
and noiseless and without the dash and brilliancy that attracts 
attention, in the Senate of the United States he knew that he 
would meet with the best minds of his country in his day, and 
it was his pride not to shrink from contests with such, nor did 
he fail to measure up to all the requirements of statesmanship 
that every occasion demanded of him. 

He was strong- and unswerving in his party faith. As a Dem- 
ocrat, the principles of Jefferson were the rule and guide of his 
faith and practice, yet he couldhardlybecalledapartisan. His 
political preed was, " That he serves his party best who serves 
his country best." As a statesman his views were always ele- 
vated and broad-gauged. The ends he aimed at were his God's 
and his country's. 

. Bat it was not in the world of politics that Judge Wilson 
found a congenial field for the fullest scope of his ability. As 
a lawyer Judge Wilson ranked high, not perhaps so much as a 
brilliant advocate as he did as a thorough lawyer. Cautious, 
painstaking, and laborious in the examination of every ques- 
tion presented to him for his judgment, he was always a safe 
counsellor and advisor. Yet it can scarcely be said of him 
that he was fond of his profession ; the practice of the law was 
a business with him, hardly a labor of love. 

He accepted public office as a duty, because he felt that his 
people called him to it, and that they did so because they 
had confidence in his integrity, intelligence, and industry, and 
to accept was his duty out of grateful regard for their confi- 
dence reposed in him. 

It was in his position as a judge on the bench that Judge 
Wilson found his most congenial surroundings. His was a 
judicial mind. With a bearing the most dignified, he was 



. 56 Address of Mr. Gibson., of Maryland, on the 

always uprigiit and above suspicion. He beldthe scales of jus- 
tice witli an even hand. 

Judge Wilson typified, to an absolute degree, the exalted 
chivalry of the profession so grandly portrayed by the eloquent 
Senator from Indiana (Mr. Yoorhees), then a member of the 
House of Representatives, in his celebrated speech made iu 
February, 1863, in the House of Representatives : 

I belong, sir — 

Said the eloquent Senator — 

to a profession which is glorious in history. I rejoice that I have spent 
some of the days of my manhood iu the study of a science in the adorumeut 
of which Erskiue and Curran, Webster and Grimke spent their lives. The 
legal profession has had much to bear in the hostile criticisms- provoked 
by an unworthy class who inliabit the vestibule of her temple and allure 
to their meshes the unwary pilgrims who seek her shrine for substantial 
relief. The arLtul trickery of iguoble minds has been assigned as an attri- 
bute of the profession of the law and its lower walks. That pestilential 
brood vrhich swarms around the base of the pedestal of honorable fame has, 
to the casual observer, sauctioned such a view. But this is all unjust. 
There is an atmosphere near the sun in which the great jurists of twenty 
generations dwell ; tliey have been the forerunners of legal liberty. They 
have never hung upon the skirts of governmental progress. 

Other professions have formed technical barricades against the advance of 
popular freedom, and questioned the divinity of the people; but those who 
have drunk deep of the fountains of that "perfection of reason, " English 
and American law, recognize the voice of the people as the voice of God. 
It is a matter of record that the legal profession has been the patient, the 
toiling, the inspired handmaiden of liberty. I pause, however, toin(iuire 
whether my brethren of the law have forgotten the examples of the past; 
whether the exalted chivalry of the profession is dead ? Do you stand by 
power, or do you stand by the oppressed in destitution? Is your motto 
the scepter of exaggerated and bloated authority, or is it the farmer at the 
plow handle, in grand though humble demand for his rights as a freeman 
under the Constitution? The mission of the law, as the chosen apostle of 
freedom, has always been to succor the oppressed, the feeble, the suffer- 
ing, and the poor, and to minister, iu the spirit of the great Master, to 
these whom Christ blessed upon the Mount of Olives. 

It AViis in this atinospliere neartlie sun that lived and <hvelt 
th(! honored subject of these remarks. 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 57 

Of his distinguished services to his State and nation in the 
Senate of the United States it is not necessary tliat I should 
add to what my colleague has so well and fittingly recounted. 
Of his personal traits of character it were small worth for me 
to speak among those in this Chamber who ki^ew him closely. 
Kind and courteous to all, dignified and unostentatious, slow 
to take ofl'ense and ready to forgive; too learned in those 
traits which make the gentleman to be otherwise than gentle; 
with a delicacy of regard for the feelings of others, and as sen- 
sitive as instinct, he moved in and out among his fellows as 
absolutely the impersonation of a gentleman of the old school 
as it has ever been my good fortune to observe. 

He died surrounded by all the gentle ministries that make 
life worth living. Few men in public life have passed from 
earth away whose lives after the last page has been written 
will bear as close a scrutiny and have so little to hide and ex- 
cuse, so much to commend, reflect upon, and take pattern by. 

I saw him die ! I watched his last feeble fleeting breath, 
and as awed I stood in that chamber of death, amid that awful 
stillness which is like unto nothing save the stillness of the 
breast when the spirit hath departed, breathing an inward 
prayer that "Heaven might rest the soul of my deceased 
friend," I could not fail to add the heartfelt invocation for 
myself that I might — 

So live, that when thy summons comes to join, 
The innumerable caravan which moves 
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not, like the cj[uarry slave at night. 
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave. 
Like him who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to i)leasant dreams. 

Mr. President, I ask for the adoption of the resolution which 
I send to the desk. 



58 Address of Mr. Gibson^ of Alaryland^ on the 
The Presiding Officer. The resolution will be read. 
The Secretary read as follows : 

Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect to the memory of the 
deceased, the Senate do now adjourn. 

The resolution was agreed to unauimously ; and (at 3 o'clock 
and 50 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned, the adjournment 
being until Monday, May 9, 1892, at 12 o'clock m. 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 59 



EULOGIES IN THE HOUSE OF REPRE- 
SENTATIVES. 



July 2, 1892. 
The Speaker. The Clerk will now report the special order. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Besolved, That Saturday, July 2, beginning at 3 o'clock p. m., will be 
set apart for tbe consideration of Senate resolution Avith reference to the 
death of Hon. Ephraim K. Wilson, late a Senator from Maryland, and for 
paying tribute to his memory. 

The Speaker. The geatleman from Maryland [Mr. Page], 
offers resolutions which the Clerk will now report. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Besolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of the death 
of the Hon. Ephraim King Wilson, late a Senator of the United States 
from the State of Maryland. 

Besolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, and 
in recognition of his eminent abilities as a distinguished public servant, 
the House, at the conclusion of these memorial proceedings, shall stand 
adjourned. 

Besolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate. 

Besolved, That the Clerk be instructed to send a copy of these resolu- 
tions to the family of the deceased. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will also report the Senate resolu- 
tions which are on the Speaker's table. 



60 Address of Mr. Pagc^ of Maryland^ on the 

The Clerk read as follows : 

In the Senate of the United States, May 6, 1892. 

Eesolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of the death 
of Ephraim K. Wilson, late a Senator from the State of Maryland. 

Eesolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, the 
business of the Senate be now suspended, to enable his associates to pay 
proper tribute of regard to his high character and distinguished public 
service. 

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate these resolutions 
to the House of Representatives. 

Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect to the memory of the de- 
ceased the Senate do now adjourn. 



ADDRESS OF Mr. Page, of Maryland. ' 

Mr. Speaker: The certainty of death, despite the evidences 
of mortality that always confront us, is with the majority of 
men an unimpressive fact. The " customary suits of solemn 
black," suggesting as they do the vacant place in many a 
household, the innumerable fatalities that go so far in making 
up the daily papers what we call " news," even the funeral 
cortege, as it wends its way to the place of burial, utterly fail 
to arrest their serious attention aud press home the thought 
that each in his turn must — 

In the dust be equal made 

With the poor crooked scythe and spade. 

Perhaps it is well that it should be so. The path of each 
one, throiigh whatever domain it may lie, is so beset with sor- 
rows that we are compelled to limit the scope of our sym- 
I)athies. The vale of tears is wide enough at best. But when 
the shafts of the dread Archer strike one who is near to us, by 
association or otherwise; one, perhaps, with whose life, char- 
acter, and aims wc have some acquaintance, we are constrained 



Life and character of EpJiraim King Wilson. 61 

to pause awhile amid our pursuits and meditate upon the 
event. To feel the loss of him with wliom we have been asso- 
ciated for days or months or years; to find each day his ac- 
customed place vacant, or filled by another ; to know that hav- 
ing fought his fight and won or lost, he is now sleeping his 
last sleep ; these must " give us pause," and bring to us the 
contemiilation of the end that awaits* us all. The influences 
of such a moment turn our minds to the contemplation and 
study of the thoughts and deeds of him whom we have lost, 
and thus, while we pay our tribute of respect, we may also 
extract wholesome lessons of life to our own advantage. 

Such possibly are among the reasons which have imluced 
both Houses of Congress, from the earliest days of the Repub- 
lic, to devote brief periods of their sessions to the review of the 
life and services of deceased members. 

It is, however, not only in the observance of thi§ time-honored 
custom that I desire to pay my humble tribute to the memory 
of the late Senator from Maryland, the Hon. Ephraim King 
Wilson, who died in this city on the 24:th day of February, 
1891, but to j)erform a labor of love regarding one of whom I 
have for many years entertained the highest respect and ven- 
eration. During all my adult years I have had the pleasure 
of his acquaintance and enjoyed the favor of his friendship. 
For many years I was honored with his intimacy. I knew 
him well in the retirement of private life; I was a practitioner 
in his court during the whole period he occupied the bench, 
and I have spent many agreeable and profitable hours in his 
society. 

While, therefore, the estimate of him which I shall express 
is formed from a standpoint of a long personal friendship, I 
can at least defend it by my testimony as a witness to some of 
the best and most active years of his life. 

EPHRA.IM King Wilson was born in the town of Snow Hill, 



62 Address of Mr. Page^ of Marylaftd^ on the 

in Worcester County, in the State of Maryland, on the 22d of 
December, 1821. He sprang from au ancestry worthy of such 
a son. His father, who bore the same name, was a most ac- 
complished gentleman, an erudite and skillful lawyer, and noted 
for the sterling honesty of his character. His memory is still 
Cherished by the people among whom he lived and died as one 
of the worthies whose names and fame have illumined the his- 
tory of their native county. His mother, rich in all the virtues 
of her sex, was the daughter of a no less honored sire. Gen. 
John Gunby, her father, was a well-known gentleman of his 
day, who, after a well-spent life, went to his last account hon- 
ored find mourned by all who knew him. 

When Judge Wilson was yet a small boy his father died, 
leaving a family, consisting of his mother, one sister, and him- 
self, in straitened circumstances. Until 15 years of age be 
attended school at the academy in Snow Hill. Deeming it 
then his duty to do something to maintain himself, he became 
a clerk in a store in Philadelphia. Here he remained a year, 
when, through the liberality of a relative, he was enabled to 
further prosecute his education at Washington Academy, an 
institution loc'ated in Somerset County, well and favorably 
known in its day for the thoroughness of its instruction and 
the competency of its teachers. 

It would be interesting to be able to state what progress he 
has made. His preceptors, however, are long since dead; and 
all I have been able to learn (obtained from the only person 
whom I knew to lla^•e been his fellow-pupil) is, that he was a 
diligent student, (|uick to ac(iuire and understand, and reckoned 
to be the "smartest boy" of the school. His progress must 
have been considerable, however, for through the same liber- 
ality which enabled him U^ attend this school he was provided 
with the means to matriculate at Jett'erson College at Cannons- 
burg, Pa., where he graduated in 1840. 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 63 

Anotlier proof of bis progress at Washington Academy is 
foimcl in the fact that upon his graduation from college he be- 
came a teacher of the former institution, remaining there in 
that capacity for several years. He then taught for about six 
years in the academy at Snow Hill, thus becoming a teacher in 
both of the primary schools where he had been educated. It 
was during this period that he began the study of law, and in 
the year 1848 was admitted to the bar of his native county. 

For about twenty years he practiced his profession with unre- 
mitting diligence. His talents, industry, and unswerving in- 
tegrity soon brought him abundant business. He became a 
most skillful and learned lawyer. 

For many years he shared with the late Judge John E.Frank- 
lin, also a very accomplished lawyer, almost the entire busi- 
ness of his bar; and upon Judge Fl^ankliu's elevation to the 
bench, he enjoyed the undisputed position of being without a 
rival. Both as an adviser and as a pleader he was eminently 
successful, A habit of patient examination, united to great 
legal acquirements and a sound and unerring judgment, gave 
to his opinion almost the force of law ; and if perchance his 
judgment was put to the test in the courts, the result most 
generally vindicated the confidence reposed in him. At the 
trial table, however, he won his greatest successes as a lawyer. 
He was sure to detect the vital points of his case, and passing 
by the less important matters, he urged these upon court and 
jury with great effect. 

These arduous labors, however, could not tail to make them- 
selves felt at last upon a constitution never robust. It was 
while he was in the full tide of practice that the first symp- 
toms of that malady which pursued him to the end were first 
manifested, and in the year 1867 his strength became so im- 
paired that he was compelled to withdraw j)ermanently from 
the practice of his profession. He retired to his tiarm near 



64 Address of Air. Page^ of Maryland.^ on the 

Suow Hill, in the hope that rest and quiet would restore him 
again to health. During the period of his activity at the bar 
he was not only an energetic man of bi^siness, but a legal stu- 
dent in every sense of the word. Nothing interested him so 
much as the investigation of intricate legal questions. He 
became most skillful in drawing nice distinctions, in discrimi 
nating between apparently conflicting opinions, and in recon- 
ciling them upon philosophic principles. 

The habit of study acquired during this period he maintained 
to the end of his life. It was then, also, he acquired that criti- 
cal acquaintance with the organic law of his country, which 
served him so well in his career in the Senate, where he was 
called upon frequently to examine and discuss important ques- 
tions involving constitutional construction. But while he was 
thus devoted so especial!y to the duties of his profession (and 
in the sense of being a seeker for office, by no means a politi- 
cian), he was, nevertheless, not indifferent to public affairs. 
From his earliest manhood he was a Democrat of the Jeffer- 
sonian tyije, and deemed it always his duty to promote by his 
personal efforts and influence the prosperity of that political 
party. He thus became conspicuous in the councils of the 
party throughout the State, and in his own county was the ac- 
knowledged leader. Yet up to his retirement from the bar, 
when he was 40 years of age, he had never been induced to 
accept public office but twice. In 1847 (before his admission to 
the bar) he represented his county in tlie legislature of his 
State, and in 1852 was an elector ujwn the Pierce and King- 
ticket. 

In 18G9 h«' was chosen examiner of the public schools of Wor- 
cester County, but on account of the condition of his health 
he resigned, having continued in that i)osition one year. 
After three years more of seclusion upon his farm, his health in 
themeantimehavingsomewhiit improved, he was again brought 



Life and character of Ephraini King Wilson. 65 

from his retirement by being- nominated and elected to tbe 
House of Rei^resentatives in tbe Forty-tbird Congress. After 
serving witb great credit to bimself to tbe end of bis term, be 
decbued tbe renomination wbicb was conceded bim, and again 
sougbt tbe qniet of bis rural borne, wbere be remained until 
tbe winter of 1878, wben be was appointed by tbe governor of 
Maryland a judge of tbe circuit court of tbe first judicial dis- 
trict of Maryland. At tbe ensuing election be was elected by 
tbe people a judge of tbat court for a term of fifteen years. 

In speaking of bim as a judge, I may as well repeat wbat lias 
been said of bim elsewbere, namely : 'vHe won golden oiiinions 
for tbe manner and ability witb wbicb tbe bigb trust was ad- 
ministered." Tbat tbis is literally true I can testify from my 
own perisonal knowledge. His manner on tbe bencb, wbile 
tborougbly dignified, was also exceedingly kind and courteous. 
His temper was equable and bland. To tbe younger members 
of tbe bar be was indulgent and considerate, and to tbe older 
respectful and patient. Yet tbere was no element of weakness 
in anytbing be said or did. ]S"o judge ever maintained tbe pro- 
prieties of bis court witb more firmness tban he. His mind 
was eminently judicial; no pride of opinion interfered witb bis 
calm and impartial search for truth. He was swerved neither 
by fear, favor, nor aftection. 

Tbe humblest suitor in his court was as sure of justice as tbe 
most ]>owerful. He held the scales of justice witb absolute 
fairness. The numerous opinions now spread on the records 
attest the conspicuous and conscientious ability with wbicb be 
discharged bis duties. These opinions exhibit tbe most pains- 
taking industry and care in tbe search for authority and in the 
very elaborate and satisfactory reasonings by which be sus- 
tained bis conclusions. These are tbe facts that won for bim 
"golden opinions." They have embalmed his memory in tbe 
minds and hearts of his judicial associates and of all who were 

S. Mis. 229 5 



66 Address of Mr. Page^ of Maryland^ on the 

before liim as practitioners or suitors. They entitle Mm to take 
rank among the greatest of Maryland's nisi 'prius judges. 
They crown him with the just glory of having fully maintained 
the high character that has always attached to the judiciary 
of his State of having kept pure and unspotted the ermine with 
which he was invested, and they will forever keep his memory 
sweet in the minds of all who are familiar with his judicial 
career. 

Whil(^ still occupying his place on the bench, in January, 
1884, he was elected to the Senate of the United States. This 
new honor, one of the highest, if not the highest, a State can 
confer on one of its citizens, came to him as an unsought ex- 
pression of the public appreciation of his talents and honesty. 
When I review at this hour the circumstances which brought 
about his election I am able to recall no other cause for his se- 
lection to that responsible position than the general opinion 
of his eminent fitness for the place. He accepted it with a 
deep sense of anxiety lest his i^hysical condition should pre- 
vent him from elficiently discharging its duties. 

The same malady, which had first become manifest while he 
was at the bar, still kept him in constant anticipation of a par- 
oxysm more severe than usual that would either disable or 
destroy him. It was with this dread shadow, almost of death 
itself, and at times fearfully real by actual pain and suffering, 
constantly upon him, that he passed through his entire service 
in the Senate. Those who observed, his retiring habits in the 
Senate, how he kept himself from scenes of excitement, how he 
forebore from participating in the heats of extemporaneous 
debate, little knew of the dreadful disease that was sapphig 
his life, compelling him to check (though it could not destroy) 
that restless energy that had made him for the first half of his 
adult life one of the most energetic of human beings. 

To me it seems marvelous that under these circumstances 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 67 

he could have accomplished what he did. His brother Sen- 
ators have borne ample testimony to the faithfulness and abil- 
ity of his Senatorial services. Says one : 

He always thoroughly mastered his subject, and his opponent could 
never present a phase of it he had not studied and considered. But his 
best work was in preparing for his committee meetings— he examined 
many cases and subjects of very great importance, and left the results of 
his investigations among the printed reports of his committee, where they 
will remain am(mg our permanent records as silent witnesses of his. in- 
dustry and ability. 

Of him another Senator has said : 

He was known in his place in the Senate as an unassuming man of strong 
intellect, sound judgment, scholarly attainment, careful and thorough in 
investigation. Gifted with great mental powers, trained by assiduous 
study, with rare perception, governed by a strict regard for the dictates 
of conscience in all things, he endeavored to do exact and equal justice. 

Yet another of his associates thus speaks of him as a Senator : 

No truer representative of an intelligent, honest, and noble people ever 
held commission on this floor. His was a rare combination of intellectual 
and moral strength. His opinions on j)ublic questions were not hastily 
formed, but were the result of careful and painstaking investigation, by a 
well-disciplined mind, and well vitalized by an earnest moral nature. He 
thought and reasoned honestly. His judgment on public questions was 
often sought by his party associates and was freely and fearlessly though 
modestly given. His speeches were always carefully prepared and were 
characterized by clearness of thought, logical presentation of the matter 
in hand, and a sincerity of conviction that was itself persuasive. These 
speeches, as they are preserved in the record of our debate, will be an en- 
during monument to his broad statesmanship and a valuable contribution 
to the political thought of our time. 

I cite these passages for two reasons— first, because they are 
the .unbiased opinions of able and distinguished gentlemen, 
given with a full knowledge of the facts, and therefore of the 
utmost value; and, second, because they are adequate expres- 
sions of my own estimate of the value of his Senatorial services. 

An examination of the record will show the wide range of 
subjects he discussed on the floor of the Senate. The bill 



68 Address of Mr. Page^ of Maryland^ on the 

known as the Blair educational bill, the relations between the 
' President and the Senate, the tariff, the fisheries, and the elec- 
tion law, commonly referred to as the " force bill," were the 
subjects of many of his speeches. 

No one can peruse them without being impressed with his 
ability and his deep love of his country and its institutions. 
He believed that the Constitution was the sheet anchor of our 
liberties, and all through these speeches, in one form or 
another, the idea is presented and enforced that there " is no 
safety to our institutions but in confining both the General 
Government and the States within their legitimate powers and 
duties, both as tu appropriations and legislation." He resisted 
with all the force of his mind any proposed infringement upon 
these principles. The " force bill," he thought, was a most 
dangerous measure, fraught with evil to the whole country, 
and his speech on the subject, stimulated as he then was to 
the importance of the occasion, exhibits his powers and his 
patriotism in their fullest development. This was his last 
effort and it was his ablest. A little more than sixty days 
after he had passed away; was it indeed that—: 

Strouger by weakness -wiser men become 
As they draw near to tlieir eternal home ! 

In January, 1890, he was elected to a second term. 1 remem- 
ber conversing with him a few weeks after his reelection. He 
seemed full of dark forebodings for the future. He expressed 
great doubts if he had doue wisely in permitting his name to 
go before the legislature for reelection. He said: "I do not 
think I can live my term ont, and is it right to accept under 
such circumstances'?" His sensitive nature shrank from ac- 
cepting any position without feeling assured that he would be 
able to discharge its duties to the end. It was the last time I 
ever saw him. On the 24tli of February, 1891, came the par- 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 69 

oxysm he liad so long expected, and on that day, surrounded 
by his friends and his family, he sank peacefully to rest. 

But death had not caught him unawares. For many years 
he had been preparing for the end that came that day. Always 
a firm believer in the truths of Christianity, he had, in the 
prime of life, united with the Presbyterian Church, in which 
he afterwards became a ruling eider, and his walk and conver- 
sation to the end of life proved the sincerity of his purpose 
and the depth of his convictions. For years he had looked 
death in the face ; realized, as only one with an incurable mal- 
ady can realize, that it might at any moment come, and when 
the hour struck he was ready to accept it with an unfaltering 
trust in the blessed promises of his Lord and Master, 

I can not conclude this humble tribute without a word as to 
his private life. Here, as elsewhere, the dominant feature of 
his character was his conscientious devotion to duty. I think 
I never saw a more conscientious man. On the bench, in Con- 
gress, and in private life he was scrupulous, diligent, and pains- 
taking in the extreme to discharge fully and completely every 
duty. " To him was life a simple act of duties to be done." He 
not only acted honestly, but thought honestly. No kind of in- 
ducement ever swerved him a hair's breadth from what his con- 
science told him was right. In society he was always affable 
and pleasant. No one ever enjoyed a joke more than he, and 
he was as fond of hearing them as of telling them himself. He 
was possessed of a singularly bright and cheerful disposition. 
Always he had a pleasant word for friend or acquaintance. 
Of him it was indeed said : 

Truth, simple truth was written on his face, 
Yet while the serious thought his soul approved, 
Cheerfulness he seemed, and gentleness he loved. 



70 Address of Mr. Page, of Marylaiid, on the 

He was kind, charitable, and generous. Many a public en- 
terprise in this community and many of the poor have already 
felt the loss of his thoughtful liberality. 

He was twice married. Of the first marriage two children, 
a son, W. Sidney Wilson a promising member of the bar, and 
a daughter, survive. In 1869, he married his second wife. 
Miss Julia Knox, of Snow Hill, who, with her fom- children, 
also survive him. It was in the quiet of domestic life, in the 
bosom of his family, that he shone brightest. He loved his 
home with an intensity that neither pleasure nor fame nor 
honors could abate. There his presence was like sunshine; 
it always made home warmer and brighter. He won by his 
own tender and affectionate kindness the love that was lav- 
ished upon him by wife and children. In the retirement 
of the domestic circle he ceased to be the judge and the Sena- 
tor; he was only the husband and the father, guiding those 
about him by his wisdom, but entering into all their employ- 
ments witli sympathy, and cheering them with the brightness 
of his own sunny nature. ■ 

And now he is no more. The gentle friend, the loving hus- 
band and father, the patriotic citizen, the just judge, the able 
and incorruptible Senator, the pnre Christian has passed from 
earth to the better land beyond the stars. But he has left 
those who come after him a noble legacy of high thoughts and 
noble deeds. These shall live after him, and shall tend to 
make the world purer and better. 

Happy is he of whom, after he is gone, this can be said with 
truth, and happy the people who are jealous to preserve the 
memorials of such a life as an example and, an inspiration to 
all their citizens, and particularly to the youth of the land. 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 71 



ADDRESS OF MR. HERBERT, OF ALABAMA. 
Mr. Speaker: Truth and honor are to aoility a passport to 

success. 

Senator Ephraim K. Wilson, whose honored name is one 
of the many that suggests the thought, ended more than a year 
ago a life the memory of whose beauty and integrity the fleet- 
ing years will not efface. He was said to be in his young days 
a man of unusual and remarkable energy, as the fiict of his 
career would easily lead one to believe. Overexertion in youth 
brought on ill-health, and this compelled him to a less active 
use of the wonderfully judicial mind that nature had fitted him 
with and that years of study and varied reading had ripened 
into that of a scholar. 

To begin with, his capital was a stout heart, a steady head, 
a willing hand, and an empty purse. 
To begin with, "the elements were well mixed in him." 
His father, though an able and well-known lawyer, had been 
able financially to give him a college education and nothing 
more. He had his own way to make and he made it. He be- 
gan life as a clerk in a Philadelphia store, and afterwards for 
seven years taught school, studying law at the same time. He 
was an exhaustive student, and when admitted to the bar his 
thorough knowledge soon told. There is always need and a 
place for such a man as he. 

The people of his State conferred upon him one honor and 
another. It is said that he never sought a public office, be- 
lieving that the office should seek the man. He served a term 
in the legislature of his State, was an elector on the Pierce and 
King ticket, school examiner of his county, was elected to the 



72 Address of Mr. Herbert, of Alabama, on the 

Forty-sixth Congress, declining to run a second time, and in 
1878 was appointed associate judge of the circuit court of the 
first judicial circuit of Maryland, an office which he held when 
first elected United States Senator. He died before the begin- 
ning of his second Senatorial term. It is said in Maryland 
that the people had never greater confidence in the impar- 
tiality of the judicial opinion of any judge than in that of Sena- 
tor Wilson while on the bench. 

His speeches abounded in classical and historical allusions, 
apt and .natural. His imagery was effective; his sentences 
rounded and sonorous. He made a lawyer's statement and a 
judge's summing up of his views. He deliberated carefully, 
but having reached a conclusion, he announced it boldly and 
maintained it with zeal. A thorough Democrat, he had a 
Democrat's high estimate of the "uncrowned queen, public 
opinion." Jealous of the honor that should be deserved by 
his colleagues in public office, he says, speaking in favor of a 
bill preventing members of Congress from acting as attorney 
for any railway company receiving aid from the Government: 

The bill will teach members of Congress that the people expect them not 
only to be pure, but free from the suspicion of corruption. 

In these simple words he set forth the lesson his whole life 
teaches. 

He was conscientous, painstaking, and thorough. In private 
his manner was affable, dignified, open-hearted, and finished. 
America may well be proud thatthisquiet gentleman, avIio held 
his course, did his duty, asked favors of no man, so cultured in 
mind and heait, was one of her statesmen, and be most willing 
to say, in pointing to the ruling principle of his well-spent life— 
The soul that can be honest is tlie only jx-rfcct man. 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson, 73 



ADDRESS OF MR. MCKAIG, OF MARYLAND. 
Mr. Speaker : It has been rightly said that " some men seem 
to be sent into the world for the purpose of action only," for 
their faculties are all strung up to toil and enterprise, and their 
spirits and their frames are alike redolent of energy. They 
pause and slumber like other men, but it is only to recruit from 
actual fatigue; they occasionally want quiet, but only as a re- 
freshment to prepare them for renewed exertion, not as a nor- 
mal condition to be wished for or enjoyed for itself. They need 
not rest, not repose. They think, they never meditate, and 
their mission, their enjoyment, the object and condition of their 
existence is work; they could not exist here without it. 

There are others who skim over the surface of life, reflecting 
just as little as these and not reposing much oftener; whose 
sensibilities are quick, whose temperaments are cheerful, whose 
frames are naturally active but not laborious; on whom nature 
and the external world play as on a stringed instrument, some- 
times drawing out sweet sounds, sometimes discordant ones; 
but whom the inner world seldom troubles with any intimation 
of its existence, men whom the interests of the day suffice to 
occupy; the depths of whose souls are never irradiated by 
gleams or stirred by breezes from a " remoter life." 

The third type are the spirits whom God has cast in a dif- 
ferent mold, or framed of less harmonious substance; men 
gifted with that contemplative faculty which is a blessing or. 
a curse, according as it is linked with a cheerful or a melan- 
choly temperament, according as it is content to busy itself 
only with derivatives and secondary matter, or dives down to 
the hidden foundation of things; according as it can wander 



74 Address of Mr. McKaig^ of Maryland^ on the 

happily and curiously among the flowers aud fruits of the 
Tree of Life, or as it is dangerously impelled to dig about its 
roots and analyze the soil in which it grows, seeking whence 
it came and whither it is bound — 

The hills where its life rose 
And the sea to which it goes. 

The spirit of the late distinguished Senator, E. K. Wilson, 
from Maryland, was thoroughly imbued with the contem- 
plative faculty linked with a cheerful temperament; so bril- 
liantly described by the gifted author quoted from, a faculty 
that enabled him to wander haj^pily aud curiously among the 
flower and fruit of the " Tree of Life," and a temperament 
that brought him the fullest fruition of life's affections and 
sympathies in the strong personal attachments felt for him by 
the citizens who enjoyed the honor of his acquaintance both 
in jjrivate and public life — his name among them being a 
synonym of integrity, reliability, and judicial and political 
incorruptibility. 

Mr. Speaker, early in the race of life fortune had selected 
him as one of her favorites, but this was supplemented by 
earnest, unrelaxing. zeal in his life work, that gave merit its 
reward and established for him a character for fair dealing, 
legitimate and honest in every sense of the word, and a sound 
and reliable judgment. There was nothing vacillating in his 
character; he was controlled by no varying currents of senti- 
ment imi)elling him hither and thither, but his plans and pur- 
j)oses, maturely consideied, were carried out to a successful 
termination with a spirit that evinced the strong, self-reliant 
man. 

Born as he Avas at Snow Hill, Md., December 22, 1821, with- 
out tlui advantages of wealth and i)owor, he steadily climbed 
the ladder of life with an eye single to self-respecting honesty 



Life and character of Ephraiju Khig Wilson. 75 

until he died a Senator of the United States in Washington 
City, February 24, 1891, full of honor, just finishing a Sena- 
torial term and about to commence another by the unanimous 
selection of the legislature of his native State, that he loved 
so dearly and honored so much by his wise and statesmanlike 
representation, thus portraying the vast and limitless possi- 
bilities of American manhood. He had thus, as the senior 
Senator of the State said, "almost completed the period 
allotted by the Psalmist as the limit of human life" when 
he fell asleep in Jesus. 

Of all the thoughts of God that are 
Borne inward unto souls afar, 

Along the Psalmist's music deep, 
Now tell me if there any is, 
For gift or grace surpassing this : 

"He giveth His beloved sleep." 

Why trace his onward, upward career as he steadily passed 
each milepost of his life, filling worthily and competently the 
various stations he was called to by his constantly extending 
circle of friends from mercantile pursuits to bar, bench, and Sen- 
ate Chamber, leaving the impress of his genius upon the posi- 
tions held and giving evidence of the rare combination of moral 
and intellectual strength that constituted him a marked man 
among his fellow-citizens. The results of his work at the bar, 
on the bench, and in the Senate Chamber gave ample testimony 
of the careful and mature consideration applied to every branch 
of his lite work and makes it an achievement that might well 
serve as a shining example to the aspiring youth of our land as 
they seek to enter xjublic life. 

Mr. Speaker, my personal acquaintance with the late distin- 
guished Senator was limited and wholly formal in character, 
yet such was the strong personality of the gifted gentleman, 
penetrating as it did every section of his native State, carry- 
ing with it the knowledge of his rare worth, that he was known 



76 Address of Mr. Joseph D. Taylor^ of Ohio., on the 

and appreciated among the people of Western Maryland, 
though a comparative stranger, as highly as those sections 
favored by his occasional presence. 

The genial nature and strong social disposition of the late 
Senator was in keeping with the section of the State in which 
he lived, and of the proverbial hospitality of whose citizens 
he was one of the noblest and truest exponents. Like many 
of our distinguished j)ublic men who have died with the repre- 
sentative harness upon them, his end was quick and compara- 
tively painless. 

i^o tedious confinement marked the approach of relentless 
death. The silver cord simi)ly parted, and as he passed into 
the Valley of the Shadow of Death, he could have murmured 
in the Avords of the poet: 

Life! we've been long together, 

Through pleasant and through cloudy weather ; 

'Tis hard to part wlieu friends are dear ; 

Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear; 

Then steal away, give little Avarniug, 

Choose thine own time ; 

Say not good night, but in some hapjiier clime 

Bid me good morning. 



ADDRESS OF Mr. Joseph D, Taylor, of Ohio. 

Mr. Speaker : In response to the request of the members 
of the House from the State of Maryland, I have the opportu- 
nity and the honor of taking some part in paying a deserved 
tribute of resi)ect to the meinory of an honored Senator and a 
distinguished man, the late Ephraim K. Wilson, a United 
States Senator from the State of Maryland. 

Tlie only personal acquaintance I had with Senator Wilson 
began and ended in the Hotel Hamilton, in this city, where we 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson, 77 

both boarded, and where he died, ou the 24th of February, 
1891, at the ripe old age of almost threescore years and ten. 
Of course 1 knew him as a Senator from Maryland and as a 
man of the highest character, but this embraces the only per- 
sonal acquaintance that I had with him. 

I remember the shadow and the sorrow that came into that 
hotel when the serious illness of Senator Wilson was first 
known. Every heart was full of sympathy for him and his 
family. My wife was vath his family very frequently during 
his illness, to render any assistance that she could, and was 
with them when he died. 

The frequency of death never seems to soften the shock or 
diminish the startling character of the announcement, espe- 
cially when it occurs under the roof which shelters us, or in 
the home in which we are living, and in this case the sad 
whisper went from room to room like a flash, and every heart 
in that hotel was touched as with a personal sorrow. Death 
comes so near under such circumstances that we realize how 
frail our hold is on this human life of ours. 

A man like Senator Wilson would naturally attract atten- 
tion and be the subject of frequent comment in a public house 
where there were many other public men with their families 
and friends, and I venture the assertion that there was never 
heard in that hotel an unfavorable comment on Senator Wil- 
son. His appearance, his manner, and his modesty gave him 
easy access to all w^o met him, and he needed no one to say 
that he was an honest, dignified gentleman, for that was written 
on his face and corroborated by every act that he did and by 
every word that he uttered. I remember the discussions of 
his character and courage when he voted against the free- 
coinage bill, and the admiration expressed for his independ- 
ence on all hands, and I then learned what sort of man he was, 
and I have since learned that he was always that kind of a 



78 Address of Mr. Joseph D. Taylor, of Ohio, on the 

man; that it had been his practice through hfe to do his duty 
honestly and conscientiously, no matter what others thought 
or did. 

The address of the gentleman from Maryland (Me. Page), to 
which we have hstened, emphasized by other sj)eakers, is a 
great tribute to a great man. No monument could be built 
higher, no memory could be burnished brighter. The pano- 
rama of Senator Wilson's life which has been spread out be- 
fore us in these addresses this afternoon will live longer than 
granite or marble or brass can possibly endure. The fame of 
a good man who distinguished himself at the bar, on the bench, 
in the House, in the Senate, in the church, and in the home, in 
public and private life, ought to endure longer than shafts of 
granite or marble or brass. The world is better because of the 
life of such a man. These influences which he exerted, these 
examples which his life has furnished, will bear fruit in time 
and in eternity. There is a greatness in a well-rounded human 
life that overshadows all other earthly honors, no matter how 
brilliant. 

And it is well, Mr. Speaker, that in these days when we have 
so much crimination and recrimination, so much perfidy and in- 
famy, so much that is degrading and demoralizing, that we can 
turn to examples of purity and integrity in jiublic life, and de- 
clare to the world that such men are i)ossible even in this day. 
In saying this, however, I do not mean to say that the num- 
ber of such men is growing less. On the* contrary, I believe 
that the jjublic service was never purer than it is to-day, and 
the way to make public men pure is to encourage the dissemi- 
nation of noble characteristics and punish the wrongs of evil do- 
ers in public places. 

I am glad, Mr. Speaker, to have an opportunity of express- 
ing my appreciation of tlic life and character of Senator Wil- 
son. 1 am proud of a country that produces such men. I 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 79 

honor a flag beneath whose folds a man can start at the bot- 
tom of life's rugged ladder and climb to the top. In European 
countries a man can never rise above the stratum of society in 
which he is born, but in this country the barefooted orphan 
can scale every obstacle and reach any eminence. As we have 
heard, Senator Wilson was a self-made man ; starting in the 
world without fortune or influence he made great progress and 
gained great distinction. I admire his character as a lawyer; 
I admire his character as a judge; I admire his character as a 
member of Congress, but I admire more than all this his char- 
acter as a man. I appreciate what he did for the State in 
which he was born and in which he is buried; I appreciate 
what he did for the country on the bench and in the councils 
of the nation, but I appreciate more what he did for the home 
and the j)urity of x)rivate life. 

I wish we had more such men. The State of Maryland did 
a noble^ct in electing and in reelecting Senator Wilson, and I 
honor the people of that great State for selecting such a man 
for such aplace. The recognition of such men for public places 
will exert a healthful influence upon the young men of the 
country, and go a great way toward giving the people honest 
and trustworthy public officials. 

Mr. Speaker, these tributes of respect seem strange in this 
Hall, where conflicts and controversies seem even now to echo 
from these walls. The silence of this hour seems so in contrast 
with the noisy scenes we witness here from day to day that I am 
almost shocked at this sublime stillness. But again and again 
death enters the chamber and bears his victim. The laws we 
make here can be amended or repealed, but the inexorable 
law of death is incapable of change or modification. It be- 
longs to every age and clime, enters alike the hovel and the 
palace, knows no distinctions or exceptions, and we can only 
bow submission to its stern decrees. There is one way and 



80 Address of Mr. Tracey, of New York, on the 

only one way to meet the dreaded foe. In all the ages no otlier 
has been discovered. It is to be ready, because in such an hour 
as we think not the messenger cometh. Again and again he 
has entered this Hall during this session, and the lesson that 
rings out is that we should be ready. In the midst of life we 
are in death. 

In the awful presence of death, earth and its honors, life and 
its emoluments, sink into utter insignificance. Time and eter- 
nity are the only rocks which seem uncovered in the presence 
of such a wave. The one thought that comes to me here and 
now, in the midst of these words of eulogy, is this; If Senator 
Wilson could recross the shadowy river and speak to us from 
his owu lips, what would he say? Would he talk of tolls or 
tariffs; of trade or traffic; of currency or revenue? Or would 
he point to those great principles of moral courage and eternal 
justice, which are higher than men or measures, greater than 
states or nations, which belong to the present as well as the 
future, which pertain to the Jife that now is and the life that 
is to come? But we do not need even this. His whole life 
speaks to us. The influences which linger around his pathway 
are fall of lessons. Tlie church where he worshipped, the 
neighborhood where he lived, his public and private career, all 
signify the wisdom of a well-spent life. 



ADDRESS OF Mr. TRACEY, OF NEW YORK. 
Mr. Speaker: My aciinaintance witli the late Senator Wil- 
son was (MUifmed entirely to our meetings in the Senate Cham- 
ber. Soon after arriving in Washington an<l entering upon my 
duties as a member of the House, 1 had occasion to call upon him 
and recjuest his aid in a matter of legislation in whicli 1 t<»ok 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 81 

an interest, and the impression he tlien made^ niion nie was 
one which I shall never forget. His manner was so kind and 
conrteous that I was enconraged in the efforts that I was mak- 
ing to procure the legislation to which I have referred, and 
those who were directly interested in it — people of moderate 
means, living in this neighborhood — came to me later and ex- 
pressed their great feeling of gratitude for the kindness he 
had displayed toward them. 

So it happened that time and again when I had business 
with the Senate I felt that in Senator Wilson I had a friend 
whom I could always approach and by whom 1 should always 
be received with courtesy. A few days before his death — in- 
deed, I think it was the last day he was in the Senate — I had 
occasion to ask his attention to a matter affecting a person in 
humble life, a small private bill for the poor widow of a soldier, 
and although the Senator was busy with his official duties, he 
immediately left his seat in the Senate Chamber and came 
with me down stairs into the committee room to look after the 
matter. 

From there I went with him to the staircase, where he stood, 
and we had some conversation. He spoke of his impaired 
health, and remarked how necessary it was for him to be care- 
ful. Within two days from that time it happened that I was 
taken down with illness, and the day Senator Wilson died 
the doctor came from his bedside to attend ni6, so that I had 
reason to be peculiarly impressed and shocked when I heard 
of his death. 

On several occasions, when I had the honor of conversing 
with Senator Wilson upon matters of business, he entered 
into brief discussions of the public questions that were then 
before Congress, and I was greatly impressed with the sin- 
cerity and earnestness which he exhibited. It was quite evi- 
dent to me that in sound Democratic principles he was thor- 
S. Mis. 229 6 ' 



82 Address of Mr. Tracey., of New York^ on the 

ouglily well grounded, aud that in his action upon public 
questions lie was governed by the highest and most patriotic 
motives. On one of the occasions to which I have referred 
there was a financial measure pending before Congress in 
which he took a deep interest and in respect to which he was 
inclined to cast his vote in a way that was likely to disappoint 
some of his colleagues for whom he had a high regard, but he 
did not hesitate. 

In speaking of the subject, he said to me that he felt it his 
duty to act in the manner in which he did act, and I saw that 
he had promptly decided to pursue what he felt to be the 
proper course. 

The manner of Senator Wilson, as those who knew him will 
remember, was exceedingly modest. If he suffered in any re- 
spect in the estimation of the people with whom he came in 
contact, it was due to this humility of demeanor; but anyone 
who was brought into direct intercourse with him realized in a 
very short time the high motives which governed his actions, 
and the elevation of his mind and character. 

Mr. Speaker, I was not regularly assigned a place on the 
list of those who were to speak on this occasion; but remem- 
bering that we were to devote a portion of this day to com- 
memorating the character and services of Senator Wilson, I 
asked the privilege of testifying in this brief and informal man- 
ner my deep sense of obligation to him and my high apprecia- 
tion of his greatness as a legislator and as a true American 
gentleman. 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 83 



Address of Mr. Rusk, of Maryland. 

Mr. Speaker : As a member of the Maryland senate in 1882 
I cast my vote for the late Hon. E. K. Wilson npon his elec- 
tion to the Senate of the United States; as a member of the 
House of Representatives I attended with its committee his 
funeral services, and accompanied the remains of our deceased 
friend to their last resting place in the churchyard of old 
" 3Iakmie Church ;" there in the chilling blast of winter, sur- 
rounded by the hundreds who had known and loved him for 
so many years, in the beautiful little town of Snow Hill, be- 
tween the bay and ocean, under the very shadows of the an- 
cient church in which he and his fathers had w^orshipped, Ave 
paid the last tributes of respect to this kindly gentleman, 
learned lawyer, and patriotic citizen and statesman. 

My own acquaintance with Senator Wilson commenced with 
his election to the Senate. I had known of him in former years 
as an able lawyer, upright and learned judge, and diligent 
member of Congress, but it was only upon a closer acquaintance 
with him that I really learned what manner of man he was; 
how kind and attentive to all who approached him ; how earnest 
and devoted in the performance of his duty; how scrupulously 
exact in the examination of matters laid before him in the per- 
formance of his duty as Senator. I was amazed at the time 
and thought given by him even to matters in which perhaps 
no one but some obscure claimant against the Government 
might be interested. Yet he examined proofs and weighed 
evidence in such matters with the same judicial fairness which 
characterized his actions when on the bench, and his conclu- 
sions when reached were so firmly hedged about with fact 
and law that no one would think of going behind a report pre- 



84 . Address of Mr. Rusk, of Maryland, on the 

pared by him. His carefulness iu these less important matters 
did not indicate that he was a man of mere detail and given 
only to the consideration of small things. On the contrary, 
while he apjjroached the consideration of great questions affec- 
ting the welfare of the nation witli the same care, yet his 
intellect grasped with equal force the most intricate questions. 

He had been a close student of our institutions, was thor- 
oughly drilled in political history, and a master of constitu- 
tional law, and with these prerequisites of statesmanship, he 
brought to the consideration of all questions, his calm judicial 
temperament, great erudition and profound love of country. 
It seems strange to us that this superbly equipped man, this 
lo\ing father and husband, this patriotic citizen, doing so 
much good for his people and his country, should be cut off in 
the height of his usefulness, when his years of toil and study 
were bearing full fruition, but to him it seemed well, and lie 
dreaded not the approach of death. He had faithfully done 
his work, had developed the faculties given him, had remem- 
bered his Creator in the days of his youth, and unto the last 
days of his busy life, and was prepared for the great mysteri- 
ous change which comes to all. 

His memory is embalmed in the hearts of loving friends. 
His State has placed his name among those of other great and 
good men whose deeds adorn its annals. The Congress of the 
United States has placed on record its appreciation and admi- 
ration of the man and statesman, and his life's history being 
written, we leave him at rest. 

Another hope which ))uiilics onr race, 

That, when that fearful honrne forever i)ast, 
They may find rest— and rest so long to last. 



Life and character of Ephraun King IVilsoii. 85 



Address of Mr. Cummings, of New York. 



Mr. Speaker: Marylaud lias beeu singularly fortunate in 
the selection of the men she has sent to speak and act for her 
in the Senate of the United States. She is not a large State, 
sir, but she has chosen to be represented by large men. From 
the day when she sent Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, to rep- 
resent her in the council of the States down to the present 
time the Senators from Maryland have generally been unsur- 
passed in ability, character, and influence. William Pinkney, 
the great orator, jurist, and statesman, in his day the leader 
of the American bar, enhanced his' own fame and the glory of 
his native State as a Senator from Maryland. 

At a later day, in our own time, another great son of Mary- 
land, hardly less distinguished as a lawyer and statesman, 
Eeverdy Johnson, maintained her x)restige in the Senate of 
the CTnited States. But, Mr. Speaker, without ^topping to 
call the names of all the eminent men who have given weight 
and influence to Maryland in that august body, I feel war- 
ranted in saying that among them all there has been no one 
more earnestly and conscientiously devoted to his public duties, 
more patriotic in his imj)ulses, more genial in private life, or 
more worthy of the respect, esteem, and affection of his fellow- 
citizens than the man whose character and services we com- 
memorate here to-day. The death of Senator Wilson was a 
loss not merely to Maryland, but to the country at large. Men 
of such energy, ability, fidelity, and high character are rare, 
either in or out of Congress. 

My own acquaintance with him was comparatively slight, 
but so deeply was I impressed by his high qualities of mind and 



8G Address of Mr. Rayner.^ of Alaryland^ on tJie' 

lieart, that I could not permit the occasion to pass without pay- 
ing this brief, unstudied tribute to his memory. If Maryland 
in the years to come shall continue to send to represent her 
in the national councils such men as she has sent in the past, 
her escutcheon will lose no ray of its luster and she herself 
will maintain no secondary rank in the galaxy of States. 



Address of Mr. Rayner, of Maryland. 

Mr. Speaker : I can hardly hope to add anything new to 
the tributes that have been j)aid to the memory of Senator 
Wilson. Whatever has been said of him by those who knew 
him best has been well deserved. The State that I have the 
honor in part of representing upon this floor cherishes with 
pride the record of his public services. Maryland has fre- 
quently sent to the halls of Congress those who have taken a 
conspicuous part in the history of the country, but I am sure 
that no one.who has ever represented her has surpassed Sena- 
tor Wilson in a faithful devotion to her interests and in a 
patriotic performance of the duties of his elevated position. 
He was a true type of the best citizenship of his native State, 
and his career in official life furnishes an example worthy of 
emulation. 

Upon occasions of this sort the strong ties of friendship and 
attachment sometimes lead us to overestimate the character of 
the dead, but I earnestly believe that in this case the plainest 
statement will furnish the highest panegyric that can ])ossibly 
be paid to his memory. Almost every life contains an object- 
lesson, which, if studied and appreciated, may become of great 
profit and instruction to those who survive. Our lives, though 
Closely analogous, are yet widely apart, and each one manifests 



Life and character of Ephraim King Wilson. 87 

its owu essential aud peculiar features. The distinguishing 
quality of Judge Wilson's public life was character, if I may 
use that word in its restricted significacion. 

Men prominent in tlie public service have attained distinction 
in various ways; some through the exhibition of dauntless 
courage at critical periods of the nation's history; others by 
great originality of thought aud diplomacy in the arena of 
statesmanship; others by wise and successful management 
upon the field of party contlipt; but his heroism aud his origi- 
nality consisted in the subordination of his private ambition to 
the public good, and in the use of the faculties and ability with 
which he was endowed for the benefit of his constituents and 
the welfare of his fellow-man. He was imbued Avith strong 
convictions, possessed of earnest purposes, and of a sincere de- 
sire to do whatever was right according to the impulses of his 
heart and the dictates of his conscience, regardless of any re- 
ward that it might bring to him or any hostile criticism that 
it might subject him to. 

I would not give a reputation of that sort for all the ap- 
plause that ever greeted the ear of victory, or for all the 
laurel wreaths that ever adorned the achievements of fame. 
What is victory, and what is fame, compared with character? 
What is success, compared with truth and sincerity! What 
do all these temporary and transient honors amount to, that 
are but the fleeting possession of a few days, and then forgot- 
ten, compared with that immortal honor of having done what 
is right, and dying with the conscious satisfaction of having 
faithfully maintained the principles of truth and justice at the 
post of public duty? 

When we examine the record of Judge Wilson as a mem- 
ber of the Senate we will find the principles that I have ad- 
verted to illustrated to a remarkable degree. Over and over 
again, upon great public questions, differing from a large num- 



88 Address of Mr. Rayncr^ of Maryland, on the 

ber of liis constituents, lie fearlessly gave oxpressiou to the 
conclusions and convictions of his own mind upon the subject- 
matter before him. He never permitted, in any instance that 
I know of, the paltry considerations of personal succe ss or de- 
feat to affect his judgment. When, after patient study and 
deliberation, his opinion became formed, he never changed it 
to gratify the ends of personal ambition. 

In the examination of the many important matters in which 
he took a prominent part he was not in the habit of liutting to 
hhuself the question. How will this affect my chances or my 
prospects for a continuance in of8.ce? But I apprehend the 
questions that he did address to himself were. Which is the 
just and honorable side that I ought to take upon this measure; 
upon which side does the path of duty lie? And I know that 
when he found it out he remained steadfast at his post, and 
did not swerve to the right and to the left and trim his sails 
to make for a harbor of safety. 

I believe that his life teaches a lesson, a great lesson, to the 
generation of young men who may succeed him in these halls. 
Here is the place where those who represent the intelligence 
and the wisdom of the country are supposed to assemble, and 
day after day Ave have exhibitions of great intellect and genius 
manifested from the places that surround us. There is no 
scarcity of competent and capable men in*the councds of the 
nation. Providence seems to have endowed the human race 
with an abundance of brains, and wlien it comes to the use of 
those great arts which tind so fre(iuent an opportunity for dis- 
play liere, the arts of eloquence, and of satire, and of invec- 
tive, and of ready, Huont argument in the heat of disc'ussh)n 
and debate, we can more than hold our own with any repre- 
sentative assemblage in the world. 

I want to say, however, Mr. Speaker, in closing this short 
tribute to the memory of my distinguished colleague, that while 



Life and characier of Ephrai7n King Wilson. 89 

he was a man gifted with those accomplishments and possessed 
of all the necessary qualifications that entitled him to reflect 
so much credit upon the State that he represented, in my 
opinion the priceless inheritance that he has left to his family 
and the inestimable legacy that he has bequeathed to those 
who may follow him, standing out in bold relief in all of his 
public utterances, are a pure and spotless character, tliat cor- 
ruption never dared approach, and an exalted spirit of patriot- 
ism, indicative of the early days of the Republic, that scorned 
upon every occasion to make the slightest sacrifice of principle 
or the slightest compromise upon the honored traditions of his 
party, or in any degree to lower that lofty standard of public 
duty which he had so closely followed in every position of trust 
and honor that he ever held at the hands of a constituency 
who will cherish his memory, and who with grateful pride will 
preserve and treasure high up among the scrolls of her distin- 
guished dead the recollection of his stainless name. 

Mr. Page, of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, I have received a 
telegram from my colleague [Mr. Compton], who intended to 
be present on this occasion, informing me that he is too unwell 
to attend, and asking that his absence be explained in that 
way. 

On motion of Mr. Page, of Maryland, the resolutions were 
then adopted unanimously; and the House accordingly (at 3 
o'clock and 40 minutes p. m.) adjourned until Tuesday, July 
5, at 11 a. m. 



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